A green HPLC method for determination of mirtazapine in pharmaceutical products: Development, validation, and greenness assessment

Abstract

Mirtazapine is an antidepressant medication used to treat the major depressive disorder in adults. In this study, two different chromatographic methods were developed for the determination of mirtazapine in pharmaceutical products. In the first method, An Extend C18 column (250 × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) was used and the temperature was kept constant at 25 °C. The mobile phase was determined as 0.1% formic acid solution and acetonitrile (80/20, v/v), and isocratic elution was applied. The flow rate of the mobile phase was determined as 1.0 mL min-1 and the injection volume was 20 μL. Detection was performed at 291 nm. using a UV detector. In the second method, ethanol was used as the organic modifier. The only difference between these methods was the organic modifier. All other conditions of the methods were the same. Both chromatographic methods were validated by ICH guidelines for various parameters such as selectivity, linearity, accuracy, precision, detection and quantification limit, and robustness. The determination coefficients of chromatographic methods were greater than 0.999 in the concentration range of 5-30 μg mL-1. of mirtazapine. Later, these chromatographic methods were applied to pharmaceutical formulations. Comparison of the obtained results in terms of means was made using Student's (t) test, and comparisons in terms of standard deviations were made using the Fischer (F) test. It was observed that there was no significant difference between these methods. These two methods were then evaluated using the AGREE-Analytical GREEnness metric software. The chromatographic method using ethanol as an organic modifier has been proposed as an excellent eco-friendly and analyst-friendly alternative for the determination of mirtazapine in pharmaceutical formulations.