A Simple Method for Determination of Homologue Imidazolium Cations in Ionic Liquids Using IC with Direct Conductivity Detection

An investigation was carried out into the fast determination of five homologue imidazolium cations in ionic liquids by ion chromatography using a cation-exchange column and direct conductivity detection. Ethylenediamine, complex organic acid (citric acid, oxalic acid and tartaric acid) and organic modifiers (acetonitrile) were used as mobile phase. The influences of the eluent types, eluent concentration, eluent pH and column temperature on separation of the cations were discussed. Simultaneous separation and determination of the five homologue imidazolium cations in ionic liquids were achieved under an optimum condition. The optimized mobile phase was consisted of 0.25 mmol L^?1 ethylenediamine + 0.5 mmol L^?1 citric acid + 3% acetonitrile (v/v) (pH 4.1), set at a flow rate of 1.0 mL min^?1. The column temperature was 40 °C and detection limits were obtained in the range of 1.1–45.6 mg L^?1. The relative standard deviations of the chromatographic peak areas for the cations were <3.0% (n = 5). This method was successfully applied to separate imidazolium cations in ionic liquids produced by organic synthesis. The recoveries of spiked components were 92.5–101.9%.     

Gas Chromatographic Determination of Guanidino Compounds Using Hexafluoroacetylacetone and Ethyl Chloroformate as Derivatizing Reagents

Guanidino compounds guanidine, methylguanidine, guanidinoacetic acid, guanidinobutyric acid, guanidinopropionic acid, and guanidinosuccinic acid after derivatization with hexafluoroacetylacetone and ethyl chloroformate at pH 9 in aqueous phase, eluted, and separated from gas chromatographic column HP-5 (30 m × 0.32 mm id) with film thickness of 0.25 μm at an initial column temperature 90 °C for 2 min, followed by heating rate of 10 °C min^?1 up to 220 °C with nitrogen flow rate of 1 mL min^?1. The detection was by flame ionization detector. The linear calibration ranges of each of guanidino compounds were obtained within 1–10 μg mL^?1, and the limit of detection was within 0.014–0.19 μg mL^?1. The derivatization and gas chromatography elution and separation were repeatable in terms of retention time and peak height/peak area with relative standard deviation (RSD) (n = 4) within 1.7–2.9 % and 1.4–2.8 %, respectively. The method was applied for the determination of guanidino compounds from deproteinized serum of uremic patients and healthy volunteers, and was found in the range below the limit of quantitation (BLOQ) to 1.25 μg mL^?1 with RSD within 1.4–3.6 %, and BLOQ to 0.4 μg mL^?1 with RSD 1.3–3.4 %, respectively. A number of pharmaceutical additives did not effect the determination with RSD within ±3.1 %.     

Rapid Analysis of Nitrate and Nitrite by Ion-Interaction Chromatography on a Monolithic Column

Ion-interaction chromatography with direct conductivity detection has been used for analysis of nitrate and nitrite. Chromatographic separation was performed on a monolithic silica-based C₁₈ column dynamically modified with tetrabutylammonium (TBA⁺). Using the optimized mobile phase, containing 2.0 mmol L^?1 TBA⁺ and 0.8 mmol L^?1 citrate (pH 6.0), delivered at a flow rate of 6.0 mL min^?1, separation of five anions (chloride, nitrite, bromide, nitrate, and sulfate) was achieved in only 40 s at a column temperature of 30 °C. The detection limits for nitrate and nitrite were 0.74 and 0.92 mg L^?1, respectively. The relative standard deviation (RSD, n = 5) of the retention times of nitrate and nitrite was 0.1% and RSD of chromatographic peak areas were 0.4 and 0.2%, respectively. The method was successfully used for analysis of the anions in groundwater. Recovery of nitrate and nitrite was 99.1 and 105%, respectively.     

HPLC Method for Chiral Separation and Quantification of Antidepressant Citalopram and Its Precursor Citadiol

HPLC method enabling chiral separation and determination of citalopram (CIT), a widely used antidepressant, and its synthetic precursor citadiol in one analysis was developed and validated. Moreover, supercritical fluid chromatography was also tested and was proved to be less effective for this separation purpose. The optimized HPLC system was composed of Chiralcel OD-H column and n-hexane/propane-2-ol/triethylamine 96/4/0.1 (v/v/v) as mobile phase, column temperature 25 °C, flow rate 1.0 mL min^?1, UV detection at 250 nm. The effects of amount of propane-2-ol, triethylamine addition, and temperature on enantioselectivity and resolution of the enantiomers were evaluated. The method was found to be suitable for determination of the enantiomeric purity of CIT in bulk drugs. Enantiomers of CIT were determined in two commercially available pharmaceuticals.     

Fast HPLC Method for Determination of Fenoxycarb and Permethrin in Antiparasitic Veterinary Shampoo Using Fused-Core Column

A new and fast high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method using technology of fused-core columns for separation of fenoxycarb and cis-, trans-permethrin has been developed and used for their determination in antiparasitic veterinary shampoo. Separation of insecticides and internal standard sudan II was achieved on the fused-core column Ascentis Express RP-Amide (100 × 3.0 mm), particle size 2.7 μm, with mobile phase acetonitrile/water (55:45, v/v) at a flow rate of 1.0 mL min^?1 and at temperature 60 °C. The detection wavelength of detector was set at 225 nm for both compounds and internal standard sudan II. Under the optimum chromatographic conditions standard calibration curves were measured with good linearity [r ² = 0.99991 for fenoxycarb, r ² = 0.99987 for trans-permethrin, and r ² = 0.99984 for cis-permethrin (n = 8)]. Commercial samples of antiparasitic veterinary shampoo were extracted with ethanol in ultrasound bath for 5 min. A 2-μL sample volume of the filtered solution was directly injected into the HPLC system. Accuracy of the method defined as a mean recovery of insecticides from shampoo matrix was in the range 100.43–103.85 % for both insecticides.     

Rapid Determination of Simple Polyphenols in Grapes by LC Using a Monolithic Column

The development of a rapid, reliable and reproducible LC method for the determination and quantification of 13 polyphenols (gallic acid, protocatechuic aldehyde, gentisic acid, catechin, vanillinic acid, caffeic acid, vanillin, epicatechin, syringaldehyde, p-coumaric acid, ferulic acid, sinapic acid and resveratrol) in grapes and derived products is reported. The polyphenols were separated in less than 8 min. Employed was an RP-18e (100 mm × 4.6 mm) monolithic type column. A gradient method with the following solvents was utilised for the chromatographic separation: A: 90% water, 2% acetic acid in methanol, and B: 90% methanol, 2% acetic acid in water. Two detectors in series were employed: a UV–Vis detector and a fluorescence excitation/emission detector. Influence of temperature (15–40 °C) and solvent flow rate (2–5 mL min^?1) on the separation were studied, and 25 °C and 2.5 mL min^?1 were found to be the optimum conditions. The relative standard deviations of the resulting peak areas, for both intra- and inter- experiments, were less than 2.4 and 2.6%, respectively. Finally, the developed method has been utilised for the quantification of the polyphenols in real samples.     

An Improved HPLC Method for Simultaneous Analysis of Losartan Potassium and Hydrochlorothiazide with the Aid of a Chemometric Protocol

An experimental design method was used for fast, simple, and accurate high-performance-pressure liquid chromatograpy (HPLC) determination of losartan and hydrochlorothiazide in combined dosage forms. This method avoids the disadvantages of the traditional analytical approach, which is time-consuming, involves a large number of runs, and does not allow the determination of multiple interacting parameters. On the basis of preliminary experiments, three independent variables (methanol content, pH value of the mobile phase, and flow rate) were selected as input, and as dependent variables, five responses (retention time of hydrochlorothiazide, retention time of losartan, asymmetry of hydrochlorothiazide peak, asymmetry of losartan peak, and resolution) were chosen. A full 2³ factorial design was used to determine which factors had an effect on the studied response. Afterwards, experimental design was used to optimize these influencing parameters in the previously selected experimental domain. After optimizing the experimental conditions, a separation was conducted on a Zorbax C₈ (150 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm particle size) column with a mobile phase consisting of methanol–acetonitrile–acetate buffer 45:20:35 v/v/v, pH 4.8 with flow rate of 0.82 mL min^?1 and column temperature of 25 °C. The developed method was successfully applied to simultaneous separation of these active drug compounds in their commercial pharmaceutical dosage forms.     

Determination of Primaquine in Whole Blood and Finger-Pricked Capillary Blood Dried on Filter Paper Using HPLC and LCMS/MS

Primaquine (PQ) is the only 8-aminoquinoline antimalarial drug in clinical use because of its unique action on hypnozoites and gametocytes of Plasmodium species. We report here simple, sensitive and specific assay methods for the determination of PQ in human whole blood and dried blood spot (DBS) samples using high-performance liquid chromatography and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, respectively. Sample preparation was performed by a single or two-step liquid-liquid extraction with organic solvents. For whole blood analysis, separation was obtained on a reversed-phase C18 column with the mobile phase consisting of 0.25 % diethylamine and acetonitrile (7:3, v:v) running at a flow rate of 1.0 ml min^?1. UV detection was at the wavelength 263 nm. For DBS analysis, separation was obtained on a reversed-phase column with the mobile phase consisting of methanol and 0.1 formic acid (1:3, v:v) running at a flow rate of 0.5 ml min^?1. The selected ions generated by electrospray ionization were detected using mass spectrometer. Good precision and accuracy (both within-day and day-to-day assays) were obtained at the concentration ranges under investigation. Limits of quantification for PQ were accepted as 25 ng ml^?1 using 500 μl whole blood and 5 ng ml^?1 using 80 μl DBS samples. The mean recoveries for PQ and internal standard pyrimethamine (PYR) for both whole blood and DBS were over 70 %. The methods were successfully applied for a clinical pharmacology study of PQ in patients with Plasmodium vivax. Excellent correlation (r ²  = 0.997) was observed between the analysis of PQ in paired whole blood and DBS samples.     

Determination of Tranexamic Acid Using Ethyl Chloroformate as Derivatizing Reagent in Pharmaceutical Preparations and Blood by GC

Ethyl chloroformate was used as a derivatizing reagent to develop a simple and sensitive gas chromatographic procedure for the determination of tranexamic acid. Analysis was performed on an HP-5 column (30 m × 0.32 mm i.d.) coupled with mass spectrometric detection. Linear response was obtained from 60 to 500 pg with a limit of detection of 20 pg tranexamic acid injected onto the column. Aminocaproic acid was used as an internal standard. Tranexamic acid was determined in pharmaceutical preparations and blood samples after therapy with the drug. Appoximately 2.0 μg mL^?1 was found in blood samples. Relative standard deviation for analysis was within 0.1–0.4% (n = 3). Recovery of tranexamic acid added to deprotenized serum was 99.6% with an RSD of 1.2–1.6% (n = 3). Pharmaceutical additives and amino acids, if also present, did not affect the determination.     

Estimation of Perospirone in Human Plasma by LC–MS–MS and Its Application to Pharmacokinetics Study

A sensitive liquid chromatography-tandem-mass spectrometry method was developed and validated for the determination of perospirone in human plasma, using quetiapine as internal standard. Plasma samples were extracted from 1 mL of plasma using n-hexane. Chromatographic separation was performed on an Agilent Zorbax SB C₁₈ column with a mobile phase of 5 mM ammonium acetate solution-methanol (12:88, v/v, adjusted to pH 3.8 with glacial acetic acid) at a flow rate of 0.2 mL min^?1. The chromatographic separation was achieved in less than 4.6 min. The linearity was established over the concentration range of 0.05–20 ng mL^?1. Both of the intra- and inter-batch standard deviation was less than 9.8%. The method was successfully applied to study the pharmacokinetic parameters of perospirone hydrochloride tablets in healthy Chinese volunteers.     

Determination of Organic Acids in Red Wine and Must on Only One RP-LC-Column Directly After Sample Dilution and Filtration

A new method for simultaneous determination of organic acids in red wine and must by liquid chromatography was studied. The determination of organic acids in wines can be achieved in less than 13 min, preceded only by a simple sample dilution and filtration step. With this method, the chromatographic separation of eight organic acids and interfering peaks present in red wine, required only one reversed phase column (Waters Atlantis dC18 column, 4.6 × 150 mm ID, 5 μm). As mobile phase, isocratic acetonitrile–0.01 mol L^?1 KH₂PO₄ at pH 2.7 5:95 (v/v) at a flow rate of 0.8 mL min^?1 was used. Detection wavelength was set at 210 nm except for ascorbic acid which was detected at 243 nm. Application to red wine and must confirmed good repeatability and showed a wide variation range for concentrations of organic acids.     

Determination of AR-42 enantiomeric purity by HPLC on chiral stationary phase

A sensitive and accurate liquid chromatographic method for the determination of AR-42 enantiomeric purity has been developed and validated. Baseline separation with a resolution higher than 1.9 was accomplished within 10 min using a CHIRALPAK AD column (250 mm × 4.6 mm; particle size 5 μm) and n-hexane/2-propanol/diethylamine (75:25:0.1 v/v/v) as mobile phase at a flow rate of 1 mL min^?1. Eluted analytes were monitored by UV absorption at 260 nm. The effects of mobile phase components, temperature and flow rate on enantiomeric selectivity and resolution of enantiomers were investigated. Calibration curves were plotted within the concentration range between 0.001 and 0.5 mg mL^?1 (n = 10), and the recoveries between 98.23 and 101.87% were obtained, with relative standard deviation lower than 1.31%. Limit of detection and limit of quantitation for AR-42 were 0.39 and 1.28 μg mL^?1 and for its enantiomer were 0.36 and 1.19 μg mL^?1, respectively. It was demonstrated that the developed method was accurate, robust and sensitive for the determination of enantiomeric purity of AR-42, especially for the analysis of bulk samples.     

A Validated RP-LC Method for the Determination of Isosorbide 5-Mononitrate in a Leishmanicidal Ointment

An RP-LC method using a YMC-Pack ODS-AQ column and UV detection (220 nm) was validated for the determination of isosorbide 5-mononitrate selected as an exogenous NO source in a leishmanicidal ointment. After extraction with hot water, the extracts were analysed at 35 °C using isocratic conditions (water-acetonitrile, 4:1 v/v; 0.9 mL min^?1). The method was specific, precise, accurate and linear.     

A validated chiral LC method for the enantiomeric separation of AT13148 on polysaccharide-based chiral stationary phase

A sensitive and accurate LC method for the determination of AT13148 enantiomeric purity has been developed and validated. Baseline separation with a resolution higher than 1.8 was accomplished within 15 min using a Chiralpak AD-H column (250 × 4.6 mm; particle size 5 μm) and n-hexane: 2-propanol: diethylamine (85:15:0.1, v/v) as mobile phase at a flow rate of 1 mL min^?1. Eluted analytes were monitored by UV absorption at 254 nm. The effects of mobile phase components, temperature and flow rate on enantiomeric selectivity and resolution of enantiomers were investigated. Calibration curves were plotted within the concentration range between 7 and 500 μg mL^?1 (n = 11), and the recoveries between 98.24 and 100.99% were obtained, with relative standard deviation lower than 1.32%. LOD and LOQ for AT13148 were 2.46 and 7.38 μg mL^?1 and for its enantiomer were 2.54 and 7.49 μg mL^?1, respectively. It was demonstrated that the developed method was accurate, robust and sensitive for the determination of enantiomeric purity of AT13148, especially for the analysis of bulk samples.     

Development and Validation of an HPLC–UV Method for the Determination of Insulin in Rat Plasma: Application to Pharmacokinetic Study

A simple, sensitive high performance liquid chromatographic method with UV detection was developed and validated for determination of insulin in rat plasma, using methyl paraben as an internal standard. Insulin was extracted from plasma by a liquid–liquid extraction with a mixture of dichloromethane and n-hexane (1:1, v/v) followed by an acidic back extraction. Chromatographic separation was achieved isocratically with a Phenomenex® C₁₈ analytical column (150 × 4.6 mm ID, 5 μm) at ambient room temperature. The calibration curves were linear within a concentration range of 0.7–8.4 μg mL^?1 (r ² = 0.9994). The inter-day and intra-day accuracy and precision were ≤3.33 and ≤5.55%. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were 0.35 and 0.7 μg mL^?1. The average recovery was 87.86% for insulin and 83.52% for methyl paraben. Insulin containing plasma samples were stable at ?20 °C for 7 days. Validated HPLC method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study of insulin in streptozotocin induced diabetic rats.     

Rapid and Sensitive RP-LC Method for the Quantification and Pharmacokinetic Study of p-Hydroxyphenethyl Anisate in Rat Plasma

A rapid, sensitive and specific reversed-phase liquid chromatographic method was developed and validated for the quantification of p-hydroxyphenethyl anisate (HPA), which is one of the main constituents of Notopterygium Radix (underground parts of Notopterygium incisum and N. forbesii), in rat plasma, and study its pharmacokinetics after the intravenous administration of 40 mg kg^?1 HPA to rats. The method involves a plasma clear-up step using liquid–liquid extraction by ethyl acetate, followed by RP-LC separation and detection. Separation of HPA was performed on an analytical Diamonsil ODS C₁₈ column equipped with a Dikma ODS C₁₈ EasyGuard column using a mobile phase consisting of MeOH–H₂O (75:25, v/v) at a flow-rate of 1.0 mL min^?1. The UV detection was performed at a wavelength of 256 nm. The linear calibration curves were obtained in the concentration range of 0.05–5.0 μg mL^?1 (r = 0.9992, n = 5) in rat plasma with the lower limit of detection of 0.01 μg mL^?1 and the lower limit of quantification of 0.04 μg mL^?1, and the extraction recovery of HPA was calculated to be the range of 82.01–86.66%. The intra- and inter-day precisions in terms of % relative standard deviation were lower than 2.33 and 3.99% in rat plasma, respectively, with accuracies ranging from 91.22 to 110.5%. The developed method was suitable for the determination and pharmacokinetic study of HPA in rat plasma.     

Determination of Toosendanin Extracted from Traditional Chinese Medicine: the Fruit of Melia azedarach LC–FD Detection

A rapid and selective reversed-phase liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection was developed and validated for the determination of toosendanin in the fruit of Melia azedarach. After extraction, the extracts were analysed at 25 °C using Eclipse XDB-C18 column (4.6 mm × 150 mm; 5 μm) and a mobile phase consisting of methanol–water at a flow rate of 1.0 mL min^?1. Detection wavelength was set at λ_Ex = 230 nm, λ_Em = 320 nm. The linearity, accuracy, and precision of the method were good, and the method can be successfully used to investigate the level of toosendanin component in herb samples with satisfactory results.     

Determination of Enantiomeric Purity of GSK962040 Based on Liquid Chromatography Using Chiral Stationary Phase Combined with a Pre-column Derivatization Procedure

A sensitive and accurate LC method was developed and further validated for the determination of enantiomeric purity of GSK962040. Before separation, a pre-column derivatization procedure was performed. Baseline separation with a resolution higher than 1.9 was accomplished within 15 min using a Chiralpak AD-H (250 × 4.6 mm; particle size 5 μm) column, with n-hexane: 2-propanol (85:15 v/v) as mobile phase at a flow rate of 1 mL min^?1. The eluted analytes were subsequently detected with a UV detector at 260 nm. The effects of mobile phase components and temperature on enantiomeric selectivity as well as resolution of enantiomers were thoroughly investigated. The calibration curves were plotted within the concentration range between 4 and 200 μg mL^?1 (n = 8), and recoveries between 98.15 and 101.48% were obtained, with relative standard deviation (RSD) lower than 1.42%. The LOD and LOQ for the Boc-GSK962040 were 1.23 and 4.15 μg mL^?1 and for its enantiomer were 1.38 and 4.76 μg mL^?1, respectively. The developed method was also evaluated and validated by analyzing bulk samples with different enantiomeric ratios of GSK962040. It was demonstrated that the method was accurate, robust and sensitive, and also had practical utilities for real analysis.     

Determination of Tetrandrine in Rat Whole Blood by RP-LC and Its Application to Pharmacokinetic Studies

A simple, specific and sensitive RP-LC method was developed and validated for the determination of tetrandrine in rat whole blood for the first time. Chromatographic separation was performed on a Welchrom^TM C18 analytical column at a flow rate of 1.0 mL min^?1, using a mixture of methanol-water containing 0.6% triethylamine and 0.16% phosphoric acid as mobile phase. The wavelength for UV detection was set at 225 nm. Sample preparation involved a liquid-liquid extraction using n-hexane. The calibration curve was linear with r ² > 0.99 over a concentration range of 0.03?C6.4 ??g mL^?1 in rat whole blood with a lower limit of quantification of 0.03 ??g mL^?1. The intra- and inter-day precisions were 1.33?C4.55 and 3.33?C4.65%, respectively, and the intra- and inter-day accuracy ranged from ?5.24 to 0.90% and ?1.05 to 0.63%, respectively. No endogenous compounds were found to interfere with the analytes. Tetrandrine was stable for 8 h at room temperature, 24 h at 4 °C in rat whole blood, and for 30 days at ?20 °C after being prepared. For the first time, the present method was successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic studies of tetrandrine in rats after intravenous administration of three different doses. The results indicated that the pharmacokinetics of tetrandrine on rats was a first-order process.     

Chemometrically Assisted Development and Validation of LC for Simultaneous Determination of Carbamazepine and Its Impurities Iminostilbene and Iminodibenzyl in Solid Dosage Form

A chemometrical approach was applied to develop a reversed-phase liquid chromatographic method for simultaneous determination of carbamazepine and its impurities iminostilbene and iminodibenzyl in solid dosage form. According to contemporary literature, no method was developed for simultaneous determination of carbamazepine and these impurities by chemometrical approach. The fractional factorial design was used for selection of variables significantly influencing the chromatographic separation of the investigated substances. The investigated variables were: temperature of the column, the percentage of organic modifier, the acetate buffer concentration and pH of water phase. The first three variables were proved to be significant and were optimized by face centered, central composite design. Investigation was performed using C18 XBridge Shield analytical column (50 mm × 4.6 mm i.d., particle size 3.5 µm). The optimal conditions for the separation were established with the mobile phase composition of methanol–10 mM acetate buffer (pH adjusted to 2.21 with glacial acetic acid) (50:50, v/v) at a flow rate of 1.5 mL min^?1, 25 °C column temperature and detection at 260 nm. Total analysis time was shortened to about 8 min. Finally, the method was successfully validated and subsequently applied to the analysis of commercially available carbamazepine tablets.