Comparative study of RP-HPLC versus TLC-spectrodensitometric methods applied for binary mixtures of fluoroquinolones and corticosteroids

Abstract

Reversed phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) and thin-layer chromatography (TLC)-spectrodensitometric methods have been developed and validated for the separation and quantitation of two binary mixtures: Ofloxacin (OFX) and dexamethasone (DXM) in eye preparation; ciprofloxacin hydrochloride (CIP) and hydrocortisone (HYD) in ear preparation. The linearity ranges of RP-HPLC methods were found to be (2.5-45 μg mL-1) for OFX, (2.5-50 μg mL-1) for DXM and (1-8 μg mL-1) for both CIP and HYD. The percentage recoveries/relative standard deviation (RSD) were found to be 100.36/1.38, 100.13/1.49, 99.98/0.61 and 100.28/1.27, respectively. The linearity ranges of TLC-spectrodensitometric methods were found to be (0.5-2 μg band-1), (0.5-3.5 μg band-1), (0.2-1.6 μg band-1), and (0.6-2 μg band-1) for OFX, DXM, CIP, and HYD, respectively. The percentage recoveries/RSD were found to be 99.98/1.06, 99.93/1.18, 99.74/1.27, and 99.94/1.54, respectively. A comparative study was conducted to show the advantages of the proposed methods which showed that the TLC-spectrodensitometric methods were simpler, more sensitive, and economic, while RP-HPLC methods were more precise and robust. The methods were validated in compliance with the ICH guidelines and were successfully applied for determination of the selected drugs in their laboratory-prepared mixtures and commercial dosage forms.