A selective high-performance liquid chromatography method for the determination of reboxetine in bulk drug and tablets

Reboxetine is used as a selective noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor for the treatment of major depressive disorders. It is effective in the treatment of severe depression and safer to use than traditional tricyclic antidepressants. In this study, a novel, simple, and rapid stability-indicating high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for reboxetine methansulfonate was successfully developed and validated for the assay of tablets. The method was used to quantify reboxetine in tablets; it employed a C18 column (150 x 4.6 mm id) with an isocratic mobile phase consisting of methanol-phosphate buffer (pH 7, 0.02 M; 55 + 45, v/v) at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. Reboxetine was detected by an ultraviolet detector at 277 nm. The retention time of reboxetine was about 4.5 min. The developed HPLC method was validated with respect to linearity, precision, sensitivity, accuracy, and selectivity. The method was linear over the concentration range 1-50 microg/mL (r = 0.9999). The limits of detection and the quantitation of reboxetine were 0.1 and 0.3 microg/mL, respectively. The relative standard deviation values for intraday and interday precision were 0.78-1.01 and 1.08-1.37%, respectively. Selectivity was validated by subjecting a stock solution of reboxetine to neutral, acid, and alkali hydrolysis, as well as oxidation, dry heat treatment, and photodegradation. The peaks of the degradation products did not interfere with the peak of reboxetine. The results indicated that the proposed method could be used in a stability assay. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of reboxetine in tablets. Excipients present in the tablets did not interfere with the analysis.