Smart TLC–densitometric methods for determination of ophthalmic ternary mixture containing chloramphenicol in the presence of its synthetic precursor: Comparative eco-scaling for greenness assessment

Abstract

Green analytical methods have gained a growing interest in the field of pharmaceutical research to reduce impacts on the environment and enhance analysts’ health safety. Chloramphenicol (CHL), dexamethasone sodium phosphate (DSP) and tetrahydrozoline HCl (THZ) form an ophthalmic ternary mixture that is co-formulated for conjunctivitis treatment. In the present work, for time saving and higher sensitivity, two green thin-layer chromatography (TLC) methods were developed for the determination of this ophthalmic ternary mixture in the absence or presence of p-nitroacetophenone (PNA), a synthetic precursor of chloramphenicol. In both proposed methods, silica gel 60 F254 plates were used as the stationary phase. The mobile phase used for method (A) was ethanol‒water‒ammonia (7.0:2.5:0.5, V/V), while, for method (B), acetonitrile‒water‒ammonia (10.0:3.0:0.5, V/V) was used as the mobile phase. TLC separation was followed by quantitative determination of the aforementioned drugs at wavelengths 242.0 nm and 220.0 nm. Both methods were validated in compliance with the International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH) guidelines, where both methods were found to be reliable, reproducible, and selective. Statistical comparison of the developed methods was done with a reported high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method where no significant difference was found. Analytical eco-scaling depends on penalty point which was calculated to be 92, 88 and 87 for methods A, B and the reported HPLC, respectively, suggesting that the proposed methods are eco-friendlier with penalty point scoring very high on the scale than the reported one.