Isolation and analysis of trace level of silicone oil in pharmaceutical bulk drug substance by ICP-AES

Abstract

In order to evaluate the extent of silicone oil contamination in a drug substance derived from processing equipment, a novel extraction method was developed which uses a mixture of polar and non-polar solvents (toluene/acetonitrile). Unlike the majority of silicone oil extraction methods in the literature that yield very low recoveries, this procedure proved able to completely recover the silicone oil from this compound. The recovered silicone oil was rediluted in isopropanol alcohol (IPA)/toluene mixture and subsequently analyzed by an inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometer (ICP-AES) coupled to an ultrasonic nebulizer (USN).