Determination of terbutaline enantiomers in human urine by capillary electrophoresis using hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin as a chiral selector

A method for the determination of terbutaline enantiomers in human urine by capillary elctrophoresis has been developed. Optimum resolution was achieved using 50 mM phosphate buffer, pH 2.5, containing 15 mM of hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin as a chiral selector. Urine samples were prepared by solid-phase extraction with Sep-pak silica, followed by CE. The assay was linear between 2-250 ng/mL (R = 0.9998 for (S)-(+)-terbutaline and R = 0.9999 for (R)-(-)-terbutaline) and detection limit was 0.8 ng/mL. The intra-day variation ranged between 6.3 and 14.5% in relation to the measured concentration and the inter-day variation was 8.2-20.1%. It has been applied to the determination of (S)-(+)-terbutaline and (R)-(-)-terbutaline in urine from healthy volunteer dosed with racemic terbutaline sulfate.