Recent theoretical and practical applications of micellar liquid chromatography (MLC) in pharmaceutical and biomedical analysis

Abstract

Abstract Micellar liquid chromatography (MLC) is an analytical technique belonging to the wide range of reversed-phase liquid chromatographic (RP-LC) separation techniques. MLC with the use of surfactant solutions above its critical micellar concentration (CMC) and the addition of organic modifiers is currently an important analytical tool with still growing theoretical considerations and practical applications in pharmaceutical analysis of drugs and other biologically active compounds. The use of MLC as an alternative, relatively much faster in comparison to conventional chromatographic separation techniques has several advantages, especially as being suitable for screening pharmaceutical analysis. The analytical data received from MLC analysis are considered a useful source of information to predict passive drug absorption, drug transport and other pharmacokinetics and physicochemical measures of pharmaceutical substances. In the review several MLC assays for determination of drugs and other active compounds in biological samples were compared and critically discussed. The presented overview provides information on recent applications and achievements connected with the practical use of MLC. The review covers fields of interest related to theory and mechanism of MLC separation, direct applications of MLC in pharmaceutical analysis, including optimization and efficiency of separation with the use of modification of stationary phase and mobile phase compositions as well as the determination of physicochemical characteristics of drugs by MLC.