ABSTRACT
High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) continues to be a very popular analytical technique for the analysis of drugs and related compounds in biological samples. Its popularity resides in its ease of operation and its ability to separate closely related analytes with excellent selectivity and sensitivity. The cost of purchasing HPLC equipment is within the budget of almost all laboratories, and the instrumentation is highly reliable and can be easily maintained by most laboratory personnel. There are environmental concerns with the quantities of organic waste associated with HPLC, but the use of narrow-bore and microbore columns and, more recently, the introduction of a 1.5-/mi nonporous silica column will enable the analyst to use even less mobile phase for a given separation.
