Microemulsion high performance liquid chromatography method for the determination of ibuprofen in the presence of preservatives and impurities in oral pediatric suspension

Box-Behnken Design-Desirability Function Approach in Optimization of HPLC Method for Simultaneous Determination of Ibuprofen Along with Additives in Syrup Formulation

BACKGROUND

The advantages of simultaneous analyses are a decrease in analysis time and a more economical use of solvents and reagents. It is desirable that HPLC analyses possess both short term and good resolution.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the current study is to develop an HPLC method for the simultaneous determination of ibuprofen, sodium benzoate, methyl paraben and propyl paraben as preservatives, and sunset yellow as a colorant, in syrup formulation.

METHOD

To optimize chromatographic separation conditions, multi-response optimization using the Derringer's desirability function was employed for the development of a rapid and efficient HPLC method. The ranges of independent variables used for the optimization process were 50-60% (v/v) for acetonitrile, 5.0-7.0 for pH, and 1.0-2.0 mL/min for flow rate of the mobile phase. The effects of these variables on the output responses, such as critical resolution between sunset yellow and sodium benzoate and retention time of the last peak indicating analysis time of the method, were evaluated by statistical experimental design.

RESULTS

Optimum conditions fixed for the simultaneous analyses were acetonitrile:phosphate buffer (60:40, v/v), pH 5.0, and a flow rate of 1.8 mL/min. The eluate was monitored using a photo diode detector set at 220 nm. Total chromatographic analysis time was approximately 3 min.

CONCLUSIONS

The developed method validated as per International Conference on Harmonization guidelines was successfully applied for the determination of five compounds in their pharmaceutical formulation.

HIGHLIGHTS

This efficient method has isocratic elution system and can be used for routine analyses of these compounds in similar pharmaceutical products.

Modulation of retention and selectivity in oil-in-water microemulsion liquid chromatography: A review

Microemulsions (MEs) are stable, isotropically clear solutions consisting of an oil and water stabilized by a surfactant and a co-surfactant. Oil-in-water microemuslion liquid chromatography (MELC) is a relatively new chromatographic mode, which uses an O/W ME as mobile phase. Retention, selectivity and efficiency can be modified by changing the concentration of the ME components and the ratio between the aqueous and oil phases. This work makes a critical survey on the information found in the literature about the mobile phase compositions that lead to the creation of successful O/W ME mobile phases, as well as the effect of pH for ionizable compounds and temperature. The viability of performing the analyses using isocratic and gradient elution is also considered. The complexity of the composition of a successful ME, and the fact that the different factors interact each other, may require many manipulations during method development to achieve an acceptable separation for complex mixtures. This is the reason of the proposal from several authors of a standard ME as starting point when developing a method for a new separation with no previous reports. Based on these initial conditions, the interest of several authors in applying computer-assisted approaches to optimize the composition of ME mobile phases, and reduce significantly the time and reagent consumption for method development, is described. Some practical tips are given to prepare stable ME mobile phases that yield reproducible results.