Determination of residues of acetaminophen, caffeine, and drotaverine hydrochloride on swabs collected from pharmaceutical manufacturing equipment using HPLC in support of cleaning validation

Abstract

An HPLC method was developed for the simultaneous determination of residues of acetaminophen (paracetamol, PA), caffeine (CA), and drotaverine HCl (DH) on swabs collected from pharmaceutical manufacturing equipment surfaces. The challenge in cleaning validation is to develop analytical methods that are sensitive enough to detect traces of the active compounds remaining on the surface of pharmaceutical manufacturing equipment after cleaning. Chromatography was performed in the isocratic mode on a Hypersil C18 BDS column using the mobile phase 0.02 M tetrabutylammonium bisulfate-methanol (100 + 45, v/v) at 50°C with UV detection at 210 nm. The method was tested for specificity, linearity, LOD, LOQ, accuracy, and precision for determination of traces of the abovementioned drugs. The time required for a single analysis was 12 min. The response was linear in the ranges of 6.900-52.100, 1.040-7.800, and 0.694-5.210 μg/mL for PA, CA, and DH, respectively.