Analysis of salsolinol and salsoline in biological samples using deuterium-labelled internal standards and gas chromatography--mass spectrometry
Sjöquist, B.; Magnuson, E.
Journal of Chromatography 183(1): 17-24
1980
ISSN/ISBN: 0021-9673 PMID: 7400260 Document Number: 167472
Tetrahydroisoquinoline alkaloids may be involved in the biochemical mechanism causing alcohol addiction. Salsolinol and salsoline were labeled with deuterium using an acidic exchange reaction in 2HCl-2H2O. Two deuterium atoms were incorporated in both compounds. The deuterium-labeled salsolinol and salsoline were used as internal standards to determine picomol amounts of the corresponding unlabeled compound in the urine, CSF, brain and liver. The salsolinol was purified on alumina and salsoline collected in the effluent. The compounds were analyzed as their pentafluoropropionyl derivatives by gas chromatography on a 1% OV-17 column and were selectively detected with electron-impact mass spectrometry at the molecular ions M+ and M+-15. With human urine the precision of the methods were .+-. 4.9% (coefficient of variation, n = 10) for salsolinol and .+-. 2.2% for salsoline at a level of 0.100 nmol/ml. Salsolinol administration to rats i.p. (0.4 mmol/kg) resulted in levels of 1-2 nmol/g in striatum and limbic forebrain after 2 h, whereas the corresponding liver values were about 550 nmol/g. Control animals showed salsolinol values in liver of about 2 nmol/g and in striatum and limbic forebrain 1 nmol/g tissue.