DETERMINATION OF EMBUTRAMIDE IN BIOLOGICAL MATRICES BY GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY WITH NITROGEN PHOSPHORUS DETECTION

Embutramide is a general anesthetic having a strong narcotic effect on the central nervous system where it paralyzes the brain center that c ontrols respiration. It is a constituent of T61, a veterinary euthanas ia drug. This paper describes a gas chromatographic procedure using ni trogen-phosphorus detection for the determination of embutramide in bi ological matrices. The drug and the internal standard (ambucetamide) a re extracted with dichloromethane under alkaline conditions. The metho d is linear from 100 to 3000 ng/ml. The within-day and day-to-day coef ficients of variation range from 5.1 to 5.7% and from 9.1 to 10.0%, re spectively. The recovery is above 80% while the minimum detectable lev el under the conditions described is 40 ng/ml analyzing a 1-ml or a 1- g aliquot of a sample (blood or tissue). The method is also applied to different samples from dogs euthanized with T61.