Objective:The separation effect for the enantiomers of ketoprofen on four diferent chiral columns was investigated and established a sensitive and stereospecific HPLC separation and determination method for ketoprofen enantiomers in animal plasma.Methods:The enantiomers of ketoprofen was resolved in the normal phase mode by using n-hexane∶isopropanol∶TFA(80∶20∶0.02)as mobile phase with UV detector at a wavelength of 254 nm.The flow rate was 1.0 ml/min.Results:Linear calibration curves were obtained in the range 0.1～10μg/ml for R-(+)-ketoprofen(r=0.999 8)and S-(+)-ketoprofen(r=0.999 6)in plasma.The detection limit(S/N=3) was 2 ng for each enantiomer.Conclusion:This method is simple

fast and can be used to detect optical purity of S-(+)-ketoprofen and monitor pharmacokinetic studies of ketoprofen enantiomers.