Direct separation and quantitative determination of glimepiride isomers by high performance liquid chromatography

A simple and sensitive high‐performance liquid chromatographic procedure for the determination of the trans isomer of glimepiride is reported. Chromatography accomplished direct separation of the cis and trans isomers of glimepiride on a Dikmonsil C18 (250×4.6 mm, 5 μm) column with a mobile phase consisting of methanol‐acetonitrile‐NH₄Ac buffer solution (1.5 mol L^–1, pH = 4.5) (1.1 : 1.3 : 1.0, v/v) at a flow rate 0.5 mL min^–1. The resolution (R_S) was 1.73 with a retention time of 24.885 and 23.018 min for the cis and the trans isomer, respectively. A standard linear calibration curve was established for the trans isomer of glimepiride over the range of 4.95–198.00 μg mL^–1 with a correlation coefficient of 0.99997. This method has been successfully used to analyze four different kinds of glimepiride product.