A Simple Liquid Chromatographic Method for the Simultaneous Determination of Antidepressants in Pharmaceutical Preparations

Fluoxetine (FT), fluvoxamine (FX), sertraline (ST) and trazodone (TD) are new type of antidepressants acting as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). In structures, they all have chromophore and can be easily monitored by UV absorption spectrophotometry. A simple isocratic high‐performance liquid chromatographic method with ultraviolet detection (215 nm) was developed for the simultaneous quantification of FT, FX, ST and TD. The determination range of the method is over 10.0–400.0 μM for each drug. The detection limits (S/N = 3, injection 20 μL) are about 0.1 μM for TD, 0.2 μM for FT, FX and ST. The relative standard deviation and relative error of the method for intra‐ and inter‐day analyses of FT, FX, ST and TD were all below 3.7%. Application of the method to the analysis of FT, FX or ST in pharmaceutical product proved feasible. The method could be used for the quality control assay of the analytes in bulk and in formulations.