A novel QbD HPLC approach for the concurrent analysis of amoxicillin, amprolium, and ethopabate in food samples and dosage forms

Abstract

A simple, rapid, and sensitive reversed-phase HPLC method coupled with photodiode array detection (PDA) was developed for the simultaneous estimation of three co-administered antibacterial drugs, amprolium, ethopabate, and amoxicillin for the first time. An analytical quality-by-design (QbD) approach was adopted to optimize the developed approach. A two-level full factorial design (25 FFD) was implemented to optimize how variable factors affected chromatographic responses. On a Hypersil BDS C18 column, the chromatographic separation was carried out using isocratic elution at 40.1 °C. The mobile phase consisted of methanol: potassium phosphate buffer containing 5.76 mM heptane sulphonate (9.05 mM; pH 3.32, 44.8:55.2 % v/v) pumped at a flow rate of 0.8 mL/min and an injection volume of 20.0 μL. In less than 7 min, the suggested method was able to separate the ternary mixture with a challenging ratio of 1: 15.6: 1 for amoxicillin, amprolium, and ethopabate, respectively. The calibration curves showed excellent linearity over the concentration ranges of 0.50–30.0, 0.30–30.0, and 0.05–20.0 μg/mL, respectively. Recovery percentages ranged from 90.30 % to 111.13 % with %RSD less than 2 % were obtained upon spiking to chicken tissues, liver, and egg samples, indicating the suitability of the proposed method for determining of the studied drugs in complicated food matrices. Furthermore, the proposed method was successfully applied to determine the studied drugs in their commercial formulations. Full validation was carried out according to ICHQ2 (R1) guidelines. Finally, the method's greenness and ecofriendliness were evaluated using various metrics tools, including the Green Analytical Procedure Index (GAPI) and Analytical GREEnness (AGREE).