Abstract
A method for extracting serotonin (5-HT) from human serum, amniotic fluid and urine samples is described. A mixture of sample, 6-hydroxy tryptamine (6-HT) as internal standard and sodium carbonate is extracted with ethyl acetate. The ethyl acetate layer is mixed with 200 ul of triethylamine phosphate buffer (pH 3.0) used for mobile phase and centrifuged. An aliquot of the aqueous layer was used for HPLC quantitation with amperometric detection. With this method 30 samples can be assayed in 6 hours.