Development and Validation of Chromatographic Methods for Simultaneous Determination of Paracetamol, Orphenadrine Citrate and Caffeine in Presence of P-aminophenol; Quantification of P-aminophenol Nephrotoxic Impurity Using LC-MS/MS.

Abstract

Three chromatographic methods were developed, optimized and validated for Paracetamol (PAR), Orphenadrine citrate (Or.cit) and Caffeine (CAF) determination in their mixture and in presence of PAR toxic impurity; P-aminophenol (PAP) in tablets. The first method is based on a thin layer chromatography combined with densitometry. Separation was achieved using silica gel 60F254 TLC plates and dichloromethane:methanol:acetone:glacial acetic acid (9:1:0.5:0.3, v/v/v) as a developing system at 230nm. The second method is based on high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection. The proposed compounds are separated on a reversed phase C18 analytical column using phosphate buffer (pH9; 0.05M) and methanol (80:20, v/v) at 1.2mL/min. Linear regressions are obtained in the range of 1-500μg/mL, 25-1000μg/mL and 1-400μg/mL for PAR, Or.cit and CAF, respectively. Quantification of the toxic PAP is carried out using LC-MS-MS by electrospray ionization in the positive mode using triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. The limit of quantification for PAP is 1ng/mL. All methods are validated according to the ICH guidelines and successfully applied to determine PAR, Or.cit, CAF and PAP in pure powder and in combined tablets dosage form without interference from excipients.