Abstract: High performance liquid chromatography with column switching has been developed for the determination of lansoprazole in plasma. The plasma samples were injected onto a pretreatment column packed with LiChromprep RP2 (25~40 mm) after simple dilution with distilled water. Distilled water was used to wash out protein and other polar components in plasma. After switching, the concentrated lansoprazole was eluted in the backflush mode onto a Shimpack CLC-ODS column with methanol -0.2 mol·L^-1 ammonium acetate (65:35) as mobile phase. Purge solutions were used for clean-up and for regenerating the pretreatment column. The method showed good precision and recovery. The detection limit was 0.005 mg·L^-1 plasma. The RSD’s (intra- and interday) were less than 2.5% and 5.3% respectively. The method has been successfully used to determine pharmacokinetics of lansoprazole in Chinese volunteers.

Key words: Lansoprazole, HPLC, Pharmacokinetics, Column switching technique