A Study of Bromine Speciation in Human Serum and Ambroxol Determination in Rat Plasma by Liquid Chromatography–Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry

In this study, we employed liquid chromatography–inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LC–ICP-MS) to explore bromine bioforms in human serum. Three bromine species were found by size exclusion chromatography–inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (SEC–ICP-MS), and one of the most abundant species was identified as Br − by anion exchange chromatography–inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (IC–ICP-MS).The quantitative detection of Br − was performed by SEC–ICP-MS, and the total bromine was detected by ICP-MS. Results for the determination of Br − and total bromine in human serum revealed that Br − is the major form of bromine in human serum, with a ratio ranging from 57.3 to 68.8%. Furthermore, we developed a method for the determination of ambroxol based on reversed phase high-performance liquid chromatography–inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (RP-HPLC–ICP-MS), and then applied it in rat plasma analysis. After optimization of the RP-HPLC–ICP-MS parameters and pre-treatment procedures, the retention time of ambroxol was 4.6 min and the detection limit was 7.0 μg L −1 . The average recovery was 85.4%, with relative standard deviation of 8.4%. The above results showed that the RP-HPLC–ICP-MS method possessed the advantages of low matrix interference and time efficiency, which were better than those reported for traditional RP-HPLC methods. Therefore, this new method for the detection of ambroxol based on RP-HPLC–ICP-MS was certainly a good tool for ambroxol analysis. Graphical abstract