Determination of relative response factors of impurities in paclitaxel with high performance liquid chromatography equipped with ultraviolet and charged aerosol detectors

Determination of relative response factors of the opium alkaloids with HPLC-DAD

In this work, a convenient method for determination of relative UV response factors (RRFs) of morphine, codeine, thebaine, oripavine, noscapine and papaverine by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) equipped with a diode array detector (DAD) was presented. Pholcodine was selected as the reference compound for calculating the relative response factors of the alkaloids. The separation of all seven compounds was obtained with optimized gradient elution with high pH value of the mobile phase on a reversed phase column with bidentate C18-C18 bonding technology. The RRFs of the alkaloids were determinate by three different approaches: ‘regression analysis/mass concentration’, ‘regression analysis/molar concentration’and ‘detector sensitivity’ approaches. The ‘regression analysis/molar concentration’ approach gave the accurate approximation of the exact amount of the substance that enters in the detector and the statistically relevant calculation includes several points of different concentrations (at least five), which makes this approach most advantageous one. This method is suitable for quality assessment of the standardised opium dry extract, raw opium and standardised opium tincture by quantitative analysis of not only morphine and codeine as indicated in the respective European Pharmacopoeia monographs, but as well as the major impurities that originate from opium poppy Papaver somniferum L. (Papaveraceae).

Determination of Gentamicin Sulphate Composition and Related Substances in Pharmaceutical Preparations by LC with Charged Aerosol Detection

A new, simple and repeatable liquid chromatography method with charged aerosol detection (LC-CAD) for the determination of gentamicin sulphate composition and related substances has been developed. Gentamicin lacks of chromophores, therefore its determination is quite problematic. Using a universal CAD enables to achieve good separation without sample derivatization. Mass spectrometry was employed to confirm the LC-CAD peak profile. The proposed method was validated and applied for the determination of gentamicin sulphate composition and related substances in pharmaceutical preparations.

A radiocalibration method with pseudo internal standard to estimate circulating metabolite concentrations

Background: It has become important for metabolism scientists to identify and quantify prominent circulating human metabolites in order to develop a metabolite safety-qualification package that meets regulatory standards. Often these metabolites cannot be analyzed using traditional bioanalytical methods because a standard is not available. Results: A radiocalibration method is described that can estimate circulating metabolite concentrations in nonradioactive human and animal plasma. The key to this method is application of a pseudo internal standard (PIS) that is present in both radioactive reference and nonradioactive (i.e., unknown) samples. Metabolite exposure in the unknown samples is estimated from measured PIS exposure using a relative molar ratio established between the metabolite and PIS (usually parent drug). Conclusion: Two case studies demonstrate that the method can be used to establish human metabolite safety coverage in animal plasma and method validation is demonstrated by comparing estimated metabolite concentrations in human plasma with concentrations obtained directly using a metabolite calibration curve.

Comparison between evaporative light scattering detection and charged aerosol detection for the analysis of saikosaponins

Saikosaponins are triterpene saponins derived from the roots of Bupleurum falcatum L. (Umbelliferae), which has been traditionally used to treat fever, inflammation, liver diseases, and nephritis. It is difficult to analyze saikosaponins using HPLC-UV due to the lack of chromophores. Therefore, evaporative light scattering detection (ELSD) is used as a valuable alternative to UV detection. More recently, a charged aerosol detection (CAD) method has been developed to improve the sensitivity and reproducibility of ELSD. In this study, we compared CAD and ELSD methods in the simultaneous analysis of 10 saikosaponins, including saikosaponins-A, -B(1), -B(2), -B(3), -B(4), -C, -D, -G, -H and -I. A mixture of the 10 saikosaponins was injected into the Ascentis Express C18 column (100 mm x 4.6 mm, 2.7 microm) with gradient elution and detection with CAD and ELSD by splitting. We examined various factors that could affect the sensitivity of the detectors including various concentrations of additives, pH and flow rate of the mobile phase, purity of nitrogen gas and the CAD range. The sensitivity was determined based on the signal-to-noise ratio. The best sensitivity for CAD was achieved with 0.1 mM ammonium acetate at pH 4.0 in the mobile phase with a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min, and the CAD range at 100 pA, whereas that for ELSD was achieved with 0.01% acetic acid in the mobile phase with a flow rate at 0.8 mL/min. The purity of the nitrogen gas had only minor effects on the sensitivities of both detectors. Finally, the sensitivity for CAD was two to six times better than that of ELSD. Taken together, these results suggest that CAD provides a more sensitive analysis of the 10 saikosaponins than does ELSD.

Review of operating principle and applications of the charged aerosol detector

Recently a new detection method, based upon aerosol charging (the charged aerosol detector (CAD)) has been introduced as an alternative to evaporative light-scattering detector (ELSD), chemiluminescent nitrogen detector and refractive index detector for detection of non-ultraviolet and weakly ultraviolet active compounds and for UV-absorbing compounds in the absence of standards. The content of this review article includes description of operation principle, advantages and disadvantages of CAD system, and short reports of selected applications of this detector. The main advantages of CAD detector are unique performance characteristics: better sensitivity than ELSD system, a dynamic range of up to 4 orders of magnitude, ease of use and constancy of response factors. Both detectors are mass dependent and the response generated does not depend on the spectral or physicochemical properties of the analyte. This attractive feature of a detection technique generating universal response factors is the potential use of a single, universal standard for calibration against which all other compounds or impurities can be qualified. CAD also has the same limitation as ELSD, namely, the response is affected by mobile-phase composition. This problem has been resolved by using inverse gradient compensation as is done for high pressure liquid chromatography and supercritical fluid chromatography. CAD has been applied for the analysis of structurally diverse compounds used in the pharmaceutical, chemical, food, and consumer products industries and in life science research. They include nonvolatile and semivolatile neutral, acidic, basic, and zwitterionic compounds, both polar and nonpolar (e.g. lipids, proteins, steroids, polymers, carbohydrates, peptides).

Determination of inorganic pharmaceutical counterions using hydrophilic interaction chromatography coupled with a Corona CAD detector

A simple generic approach was investigated for the determination of inorganic pharmaceutical counterions in drug substances using conventional high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) instruments. An intuitive approach combined Corona charged aerosol detection (CAD) with a polymer-based zwitterionic stationary phase in the hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) mode. Two generic methods based on this HILIC/CAD technique were developed to quantitate counterions such as Cl-, Br-, SO(4)(2-), K+, Ca2+ and Mg2+ in different pharmaceutical compounds. The development and capability of this HILIC/CAD technique analysis were examined. HILIC/CAD was compared to ion chromatography (IC), the most commonly used methodology for pharmaceutical counterion analysis. HILIC/CAD was found to have significant advantages in terms of: (1) being able to quantitate both anions and cations simultaneously without a need to change column/eluent or detection mode; (2) imposing much less restriction on the allowable organic percentage of the eluents than IC, and therefore being more appropriate for analysis of counterions of poorly water-soluble drugs; (3) requiring minimal training of the operating analysts. The precision and accuracy of counterion analysis using HILIC/CAD was not compromised. A typical precision of <2.0% was observed for all tested inorganic counterions; the determinations were within 2.0% relative to the theoretical counterion amount in the drug substance. Additionally, better accuracy was shown for Cl- in several drug substances as compared to IC. The main drawback of HILIC/CAD is its unsuitability for many of the current silica-based HILIC columns, because slight dissolution of silica leads to high baseline noise in the CAD detector. As a result of the universal detection characteristics of Corona CAD and the unique separation capabilities of a zwitterionic stationary phase, an intuitive and robust HPLC method was developed for the generic determination of various counterions in different drug substances. HILIC/CAD technique is a useful alternative methodology, particularly for determination of counterions in low-solubility drugs.

Investigation of mass-balance issue in e-beam sterilized paclitaxel eluting coronary stents by SPME/GC-MS

Paclitaxel eluting coronary stents were sterilized by e-beam in a closed system, to investigate sterilization related mass-balance issues and evaluate potential volatile paclitaxel degradation products. A solid-phase microextraction (SPME) method utilizing a polydimethyl-siloxane/divinyl-benzene (PDMS/DVB) fiber was optimized for extracting the volatiles from the head-space of the sterilized stents. GC-MS was used for separation, identification, and quantitation of the components. Benzaldehyde and benzoic acid were identified as paclitaxel related volatile degradation products. Three groups of stents were included in the study, a control group (not exposed to e-beam), a group sterilized at 25 kGy, and a final group sterilized at 75 kGy. The stents sterilized by e-beam at 75 kGy contained significantly higher levels of benzoic acid relative to the controls and the stents at 25 kGy contained intermediate levels of benzoic acid. The benzaldehyde levels increased in the 25 kGy e-beam sterilized stents relative to the control but remained fairly constant in the 75 kGy e-beam sterilized stents relative to the 25 kGy e-beam results. Mechanism for the formation of benzoic acid and benzaldehyde from paclitaxel was proposed. The levels of benzoic acid and benzaldehyde observed on the stents did not resolve the original mass-balance issue, but most likely contribute to the lack of mass balance observed for paclitaxel.