Assessment of pheniramine in alternative biological matrices by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

Pheniramine is an over-the-counter antihistamine drug. Its accessibility and low cost made it more popular among drug abusers in Pakistan. In this study, pheniramine was quantified in both conventional and alternative specimens of twenty chronic drug abusers, aged 16-50 years, who were positive for pheniramine in comprehensive toxicological screening for drugs by gas chromatography with mass spectral detection in positive electron impact mode. Pheniramine was extracted from biological specimens using solid phase extraction and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry was employed for quantification. Chromatographic separation was carried out on a Poroshell120EC-18 (2.1 mm × 50 mm × 2.7 µm) column using water-acetonitrile in formic acid (0.1%) mobile phase in gradient elution mode with 500 μL/min flow rate. Positive electrospray ionization mode and multi-reaction monitoring with ion transitions m/z 241.3 → 195.8 and 167.1 for pheniramine and m/z m/z 247.6 → 173.1 for pheniramine-d6 were employed. The quantification method showed good linear ranges of 2-1000 ng/mL in blood, urine, and oral fluid; 2-1000 ng/mg in hair and 5-1000 ng/mg in nail with ≥ 0.985% coefficient of linearity. The retention time of pheniramine was 3.0 ± 0.1 min. The detection and lower quantification limits were 1 ng/mL and 2 ng/mL for blood, urine, oral fluid and hair whereas 2.5 ng/mg and 5 ng/mg for nail, respectively. Mean extraction recovery and ionization suppression ranged 86.3-95.1% and -4.6 to -14.4% in the studied matrices. Intra-day and inter-day precision were 4.1-9.3% and 2.8-11.2%, respectively. Pheniramine levels in specimens of drug abusers were 23-480 ng/mL in blood, 72-735 ng/mL in urine, 25-379 ng/mL in oral fluid, 10-170 ng/mg in hair and 8-86 ng/mg in nail specimens. Alternative specimens are of utmost significance in clinical and medico-legal cases. In this study, authors compared matrix-matched calibration curves to blood calibration curve and obtained results within ± 10%; thereby justifying the use of blood calibration curve for urine, oral fluid, hair, and nail specimens.

A green TLC densitometric method for the simultaneous detection and quantification of naphazoline HCl, pheniramine maleate along with three official impurities

Impurity profiling of a pharmaceutical compound is now taking great attention during quality assessment of pharmaceuticals, as presence of small amount of impurities may affect safety and efficacy. In this work, a novel TLC chromatographic method coupled with densitometric detection was established for the simultaneous quantification of naphazoline HCl, pheniramine maleate and three of their official impurities, namely; naphazoline impurity B, pheniramine impurities; A & B. Chromatographic separation was carried out on TLC aluminum silica plates F254, as a stationary phase, using methanol: ethyl acetate: 33.0% ammonia (2.0: 8.0: 1.0, by volume), as a mobile phase. Plates were examined at 260.0 nm and International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) guidelines were followed for method’s validation. Important factors, such as; composition of mobile phase and detection wavelengths were optimized. Linearity was achieved over the ranges of 2.0–50.0 µg band⁻¹ for naphazoline, 10.0–110.0 µg band⁻¹ for pheniramine, 0.1–10.0 µg band⁻¹ for naphazoline impurity B and 2.0–50.0 µg band⁻¹ for both pheniramine impurities. The proposed method was assessed in terms of accuracy, precision and robustness where satisfactory results (recovery % ≈ 100% and RSD < 2) were obtained. The method was also applied for the simultaneous determination of naphazoline HCl and pheniramine maleate, in Naphcon-A^® eye drops, with respective recoveries of 101.36% and 100.94%. Method greenness was evaluated and compared to the reported HPLC one via environmental, health and safety tool. The developed method has much potential over the reported one of being simple, selective, economic and time saving for the analysis of the five cited compounds.

An efficient method for simultaneous detection of Pheniramine, Pentazocine and cotinine in urine by Gas Chromatography in De-addiction program

Background

Nonmedical use of prescription drugs for recreational purposes is a major health problem that raises high concerns for public health. Recently, several laboratory studies have reported the misuse of pentazocine, an agonist-antagonist opioid in combination with antihistamines in opioid addicts. Illicit self-administration of prescription drugs has been increasingly reported in India. Urinalysis as an adjunct to self-report plays a key role in providing additional information in the treatment of drug users. This paper aims to discuss a simple, convenient, and rapid capillary column gas-liquid chromatography method for simultaneous detection of pentazocine, pheniramine, and cotinine in urine.

Methods

The sample was extracted with chloroform and isopropanol (3:1,v/v) and evaporated to dryness. After reconstitution with methanol, it was directly subjected to gas chromatography analysis. Method performance was evaluated and validated in terms of sensitivity, precision, the limit of detection (LOD), and the limit of quantification (LOQ).

Findings

The linearity obtained was in the range of 50-1000 ng/ml with a correlation coefficient (r) above 0.999 for each drug. Good LOQ (50ng/ml) was obtained with each drug. Also, the developed method was effective in analyzing samples from patients with suspected abuse of these drugs.

Conclusion

The technique was found to be simple, robust, sensitive, and precise in the simultaneous analysis of drugs (pentazocine, pheniramine, and cotinine). This method was proved to be useful and cost-effective in treating and monitoring patients seeking help for addiction in clinical settings.

Glassy carbon electrode modified with multi-walled carbon nanotubes sensor for the quantification of antihistamine drug pheniramine in solubilized systems

A sensitive electroanalytical method for quantification of pheniramine in pharmaceutical formulation has been investigated on the basis of the enhanced electrochemical response at glassy carbon electrode modified with multi-walled carbon nanotubes in the presence of sodium lauryl sulfate. The experimental results suggest that the pheniramine in anionic surfactant solution exhibits electrocatalytic effect resulting in a marked enhancement of the peak current response. Peak current response is linearly dependent on the concentration of pheniramine in the range 200–1500 μg/mL with correlation coefficient 0.9987. The limit of detection is 58.31 μg/mL. The modified electrode shows good sensitivity and repeatability.