High-performance liquid chromatographic determination of morphine and its metabolites in plasma using diode-array detection.

An isocratic high-performance liquid chromatographic method has been developed for the determination of morphine, codeine, normorphine, morphine 3-glucuronide and morphine 6-glucuronide in plasma using a diol column and diode-array detection. Samples were extracted using solid-phase extraction with recoveries in excess of 90%. The limit of determination was 1 ng/ml for morphine, codeine and morphine 3-glucuronide, and 10 ng/ml for normorphine and morphine 6-glucuronide. Inter- and intra-day precision were better than 10%.