Philippe Dallet

Separation of new antidepressants and their metabolites by micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), serotonin noradrenergic reuptake inhibitors (SNaRIs) and noradrenergic and specific serotoninergic antidepressant (NaSSA) are widely used in the treatment of depression. An increase in antidepressant intoxications led to the development of reliable analytical methods for their analysis. A new determination procedure for these compounds (milnacipran, venlafaxine, desmethylvenlafaxine, mirtazapine, desmethylmirtazapine, citalopram, desmethylcitalopram, fluvoxamine, paroxetine, sertraline and fluoxetine) was developed by micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MEKC) with diode array detection (DAD). Separation and determination were optimised on an uncoated fused-silica capillary (600 mm, 75 microm I.D.). The migration buffer consisted of 20 mM sodium borate, pH 8.55, with 20 mM SDS and 15% isopropanol, at an operating voltage of 25 kV. The column temperature was maintained at 40 degrees C. Injection in the capillary was performed in the hydrodynamic mode (0.5 p.s.i., 15 s). In these conditions, the migration time of the antidepressants was less than 11 min. In most cases, calibration curves were established for 30 - 2000 ng/ml (r > 0.995). The limit of detection and the limit of quantification were ranged between 10 and 20 and between 20 and 30 ng/ml, respectively, for all the molecules. This method allowed the determination of some of these compounds in biological fluids (blood, urine) in post-mortem cases. Samples (1 ml) were extracted with diethyl ether (5 ml) at pH 9.6 and reconstituted in diluted migration buffer. Similar results were obtained by a HPLC-DAD determination, performed as a reference method. These results suggest that this MEKC method can be useful for the determination of new antidepressants in post-mortem cases.

Comparison of high-performance liquid chromatography and capillary zone electrophoresis for the determination of parabens in a cosmetic product.

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method (HPLC) and a capillary zone electrophoresis method (CZE) have been developed for the analysis of methylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben and butylparaben in a commercial cosmetic product. A very simple extraction procedure with acidified diethylether was developed. The HPLC method involved a C18 reversed-phase column and a gradient of methanol and water-acetic acid (1%). Electrophoretic separation was performed on a fused-silica capillary with a mixed 15 mM tetraborate buffer (pH 9.2) and methanol (85:15, v/v). The calibration curves were linear from 1 to 40 microg/ml in HPLC and from 5 to 200 microg/ml in CZE. The limit of detection in CZE (0.21 microg/ml) was higher than in HPLC (0.05 microg/ml). Repeatability and intermediate precision were satisfactory for both methods (RSD values < 3.23% in HPLC and < 3.26%, in CZE). Only HPLC allowed the separation of butylparaben isomeric forms when CZE analysis was less time and reagents consuming. These results suggest that HPLC and CZE coupled with a simple extraction process are both suitable for parabens determination in cosmetic products.

Determination of pKa values of 2-amino-2-oxazolines by capillary electrophoresis.

The dissociation constants of new 2-amino-2-oxazolines were determined by capillary electrophoresis (CE) as a new technique. A method based on a linear model has been used in the CE determination. A series of eight 2-amino-2-oxazolines are investigated to determine their ionization constant. Among them, three new oxazolines synthesized are presented. The Ka values were obtained from the plots of reciprocal effective mobility against inverse concentrations of protons. The potentiometric method (PM) was performed as a comparative method. No significant differences were observed between the determined dissociation constants using both methods. Thus, the pKa values have been found to vary between 8.55 and 8.68.

Spectrophotometric, spectrofluorimetric, HPLC and CZE determination of mirtazapine in pharmaceutical tablets.

Four analytical methods have been developed for the quality control of tablets containing mirtazapine: spectrophotometry, spectrofluorimetry, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE). All the methods only require a simple extraction procedure of mirtazapine from the tablets before analysis. The concentration of mirtazapine in solutions was determined in the linearity range of 5-25 microg/ml at lambda=315 nm for spectrophotometry and at lambda=220 nm for HPLC and CZE. Spectrofluorimetric determinations were achieved at lambda(excitation)=328 nm and lambda(emission)=415 nm in the linearity range of 2-25 ng/ml. All the methods gave similar results and were validated for selectivity, linearity, precision and sensitivity. Spectrometric methods gave slightly higher RSD values (up to 2.54%). The four methods were directly and easily applied to the pharmaceutical preparation with accuracy, resulting from recovery experiments between 99.72% in HPLC and 101.47% in spectrofluorimetry.

Simultaneous Determination of Ibuprofen and Pseudoephedrine Hydrochloride in Pharmaceutical Tablets by Reversed-Phase HPLC

Abstract An isocratic HPLC method was developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of ibuprofen (IBU) and pseudoephedrine hydrochloride (PSE). Chromatography was carried out on an Apex phenyl column using 0.025 M acetic acid, triethylamine solution (pH 4.5) – acetonitrile (80:20, v/v) as mobile phase at a flow rate of 1 mL · min−1. UV detection was performed at a wavelength of 210 nm. The method was validated for specificity, linearity, accuracy, precision, and was successfully applied to pharmaceutical tablets of Rhinadvil®.