Development and validation of a simple thin-layer chromatography–smartphone method for plasma paracetamol quantification

Abstract

Paracetamol is the most widely used analgesic drug in the world. However, the risk and the severity of poisoning with this medication are often underestimated. A simple and cost-effective method for screening paracetamol poisoning by using thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and a smartphone has been developed. Successful liquid‒liquid extraction of the drug from plasma was carried out. Then, samples were spotted on a TLC plate and eluted by a mobile phase of acetone‒hexane‒ammonia (4:5:0.1, V/V). JustTLC software was used to analyze and quantify paracetamol spots. The results of the analytical validation showed that our method is linear in the range of 80–180 µg/mL with a correlation coefficient of R 2 > 0.99. The precision, the accuracy, and the robustness of the method were also verified. The limits of detection and quantification were 8.79 and 26.65 µg/mL, respectively. The comparison with an enzyme immunoassay and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was satisfactory. This methodology opens up new promising perspectives in toxicology laboratories.