Analysis of methylene blue and its metabolites in blood by capillary electrophoresis/electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

A method for the determination of methylene blue (MB) and its metabolites (azure A, azure B and azure C) in rat blood by CE‐electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (CE‐ESI‐MS) was developed in this paper. Different analytical parameters were investigated in detail such as pH and concentration of separation buffer, and ESI‐MS instrumental parameters. Under the optimum conditions, MB and its metabolites were separated and detected in 27.3 min. LODs (defined as S/N=3) of this method were 0.22, 0.25, 0.10 and 0.30 μg/mL for MB, azure A, azure B and azure C, respectively. To get a satisfactory extraction efficiency of MB and its metabolites in rat blood, different extraction solutions were studied. By using this method, MB and its metabolites (azure A, azure B and azure C) were successfully analyzed in rat blood samples.