Development and validation of a HPLC method for the determination of trans-resveratrol in spiked human plasma

A simple, accurate, precise, sensitive, and reproducible high-performance liquid chromatography method was developed for the determination of Resveratrol (trans-3, 4’,5-trihydroxystilbene) in human plasma using liquid-liquid extraction. Caffeine was employed as an internal standard (IS). However, little information is known about its distribution in the organism generally because of the lack of accurate and precise detection methods. The chromatographic separation was achieved on a Phenomenex C18 column (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) at room temperature in isocratic mode, and the column effluent was monitored by UV detector at 306 nm. The mobile phase used was methanol: phosphate buffer (pH 6.8 adjusted with 0.5% (v/v) orthophosphoric acid solution in Milli-Q water) (63:37%, v/v) at a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min. Nominal retention times of trans-resveratrol and IS were 3.94 and 7.86 minutes, respectively. Limits of detection and Limits of quantification of trans-resveratrol were 0.006 μg/ml and 0.008 μg/ml, respectively. This method was linear over the range of 0.010 to 6.4 μg/ml with regression coefficient greater than 0.9998. The inter- and intra-day precisions in the samples, 0.010, 3.2 and 6.4 μg/ml of trans-resveratrol was in the range 0.63 to 2.12% relative standard deviation (RSD) and 0.46 to 1.02% RSD, respectively. Resveratrol was found to be stable for a period of 15 days on storage at -20°C. The method was found to be precise, accurate, and specific during the study.