HPTLC-Densitometric Method for Determination of Ascorbic Acid, Paracetamol and Guaifenesin in Presence of Their Toxic Impurities.

Ascorbic acid (ASC), paracetamol (PAR) and guaifenesin (GUF) are co-formulated together as analgesic and expectorant effervescent powder. This work describes a selective stability indicating HPTLC-densitometric method which is the first developed stability indicating one for chromatographic separation of the three studied drugs in presence of paracetamol toxic impurity [4-aminophenol (4-AP)] and guaifenesin related substance [impurity, (guaiacol) (GUC)]. The chromatographic separation was carried out on HPTLC 60F254 plates using chloroform-acetone-trifluoroacetic acid (6.5:3.5:0.30, by volume) as a developing system with UV detection at 254 nm. Factors affecting chromatographic separation have been optimized and good separation was obtained between the studied components where (ASC Rf = 0.05, 4-AP Rf = 0.12, GUF Rf = 0.24, PAR Rf = 0.41 and GUC Rf = 0.56). Method validation has been performed according to ICH guidelines and linearity was achieved in the range of 0.4-2.4, 0.4-2.8 and 4-15 μg/band for ASC, PAR and GUF, respectively. In order to evaluate the developed method it was applied for determination of the cited drugs in G.C.Mol® effervescent powder and the obtained results were statistically compared with those obtained by applying the reported HPLC method using Student's t- and F-tests where no significant difference was observed. The developed method has the advantages over the reported HPLC one of being more sensitive and selective which permit its application in quality control analysis of the cited their in presence of drug impurities.