Determination of Chlorzoxazone in Rat Plasma by LC-ESI-MS/MS and Its Application to a Pharmacokinetic Study

A sensitive LC-ESI-MS/MS method for determination of chlorzoxazone in rat plasma has been developed. Chromatographic separation was achieved on a Zorbax SB-C18 column, with 45:55 (v/v) acetonitrile–water as the mobile phase. A LC-ESI-MS/MS was performed in a multiple reactions monitoring (MRM) mode using target ions m/z 167.5→131.6 for chlorzoxazone and m/z 230.7→185.6 for phenobarbital (internal standard). The calibration plots were linear over the range of 10.0–2,000 ng/mL. Intra-day and inter-day precisions were better than 5.1% and 6.8%, respectively. The validated method was successfully used to analyze the drug in samples of rat plasma for pharmacokinetic study.