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Objectives: A synergic antihistamine, cough suppressant, and decongestant combination of chlorpheniramine, dextromethorphan, and phenylephrine is used to treat acute respiratory infections caused by seasonal viruses. The effective qualitative and quantitative methods require the simultaneous measurement of a ternary combination in the pharmaceutical syrup dosage form. Therefore, a new, simple, fast and robust high performance thin layer chromatographic (HPTLC) method has been developed and validated for chlorpheniramine maleate (CPM), dextromethorphan hydrobromide (DEXO) and phenylephrine hydrochloride (PE)., Material and Methods: The chromatographic separation was carried out on precoated aluminium plates with silica gel 60 F254 as the stationary phase. Mobile phase used was chloroform: methanol: ammonia (2.5:7.5:0.3, v/v/v) for proper separation. The detection was carried out at 270nm wavelength in absorbance mode. Developed method was validated as per International Council for Harmonization (ICH) Q2 (R1) guideline., Results: The linearity range is 400 to 1400ng/band for CPM, 3000 to 11500ng/band for DEXO and 1000 to 3500ng/band for PE with correlation coefficient ≥ 0.995. The consistent lower values of relative standard deviation (RSD, %) for precision and robustness study indicate the method reliability. The percent recovery ranged from 97.82 to 102.03% indicates the good accuracy of the method., Conclusion: The proposed method was complying for the analytical method validation parameters suggested by the ICH Q2 (R1) guideline. The method was found to be simple, rapid and reliable for the simultaneous estimation of CPM, DEXO and PE from its pharmaceutical syrup dosage form. The method was successfully applied to quantify these analytes from the several pharmaceutical syrup dosage form., (Copyright © 2024 Académie Nationale de Pharmacie. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

A sensitive, selective, accurate and precise ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-Tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) method was developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of drugs used as eye drops in cataract surgery in aqueous humor. Cataract surgery requires a powerful mydriatic eye drops combination such as cyclopentolate hydrochloride and phenylephrine hydrochloride to dilate the pupil and facilitate eye lens replacement and also requires strong fluoroquinolone antibiotic such as lomefloxacin hydrochloride. The method was performed with positive ion electrospray ionization and the analytes were quantified and monitored on a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer using multiple reaction monitoring scanning mode. Liquid-liquid extraction was used for the purification and preconcentration of analytes from rabbit aqueous humor matrix. Chromatographic elution was performed using an Phenomenex Luna® C18 (150 mm × 2.1 mm, 1.6 μm) column and moxifloxacin hydrochloride as internal standard with a mobile phase consisting of methanol:water:formic acid (70:29:1, by volume) at flow rate of 0.2 mL/min. Satisfactory results regarding linearity, recovery, stability, accuracy and precision of the analytes were obtained. Full validation of the procedure was performed according to the US Food and Drug Administration guidance for industry: bioanalytical method validation and European Medicines Agency (EMA) guideline on bioanalytical method validation., (© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

A stability-indicating high performance liquid chromatography method with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) was developed and validated for simultaneous determination of phenylephrine hydrochloride (PHR), dimetindene maleate (DMD) and benzalkonium chloride (BZM) in nasal drops and gel dosage forms. Effective liquid chromatographic separation was accomplished by employing Venusil XBP Cyano column (4.6 × 250 mm, 5 µm particle size) with gradient elution of the mobile phase consisting of buffer solution of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (0.025 M) and sodium 1-butane sulfonate (SBS) (0.025 M) (adjusted to pH 6.0) and acetonitrile. Peak areas of PHR, DMD and BZM at 271, 256 and 206 nm, respectively were measured and correlated to their concentrations. Peaks of PHR and DMD eluted at retention times 3.76 and 9.06 min, respectively, while BZM eluted as a couple of peaks at 11.88 and 12.51 min. The proposed HPLC procedure was carefully validated in terms of system suitability, linearity, ranges, precision, accuracy, specificity, robustness, detection and quantification limits. The linearity range for both PHR and BZM was 10-400 μg/mL and DMD was 5-300 μg/mL with correlation coefficients >0.9999. The studied compounds were subjected to stress conditions of neutral, acidic and alkaline hydrolysis, oxidation and thermal degradation. Good resolution of the three compounds from their forced degradation products proves specificity and stability-indicating merits of the proposed method. In addition, resolution of the three drugs under investigation from some pharmaceutical compounds of different medicinal categories showed the high specificity of the described method.

Multiplex ion analyzers have been introduced recently for the assay of several inorganic ions, whilst electrochemists have extensively employed screen printed sensors for pharmaceutical analyses. This work aims to develop a USB pluggable sensor with a user-friendly design for multiplex analysis of oppositely charged co-formulated organic ions. The miniaturized screen-printed electrode was developed using silver ink on paper substrate. A compact sensor design was attained by including three electrodes, a single reference electrode along with an indicator electrode for each of the determined ions. Optimized PVC membranes were drop-casted over each of the indicator electrodes for the determination of phenylephrine HCl (PHE) and ibuprofen (IBU). The proposed multiplex potentiometric sensors exhibit Nernstian slopes of 59.2 ± 0.26 and -56.8 ± 0.16 mV/decade for PHE and IBU, respectively, with respective detection limits of 1.6 × 10 -7 and 6.53 × 10 -8 mol L -1 . The fast and stable response of the developed sensor enabled the real-time monitoring of the combined dosage form dissolution. The dissolution profiles obtained by this potentiometric analyzer and an off-line separation technique were compared favourably, albeit our proposed in-line sensor reduced waste and time of analysis. The developed method successfully complies with the most demanding stipulations of green analytical chemistry., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Simple and rapid synchronous fluorometric methods were adopted and validated for the simultaneous analysis of a binary mixture of diphenhydramine (DIP) and ibuprofen (IBU) (Mix I) or DIP and phenylephrine (PHE) (Mix II) in their co-formulated pharmaceuticals without prior separation. Analysis of Mix I is based on the measurement of the peak amplitudes (D 1 ) of synchronous fluorescence intensities at 265.1 nm for DIP and 260 nm for IBU. The relationship between the concentration and the amplitude of the first-derivative synchronous fluorescence spectra showed good linearity over the concentration ranges 0.50-10.00 μg ml -1 and 0.50-7.90 μg ml -1 for DIP and IBU, respectively. Analysis of Mix II was based on measurement of the peak amplitude (D 1 ) synchronous fluorescence intensities at 230 nm for DIP and at 253.9 nm for PHE. Moreover, for Mix II, the peak amplitude (D 2 ) synchronous fluorescence intensities were measured at 227.9 nm for DIP and at 264.9 nm for PHE. Calibration plots were rectilinear over the concentration range 0.30-3.50 μg ml -1 and 0.03-0.75 μg ml -1 for DIP and PHE, respectively. The proposed methods were successfully applied to determine the studied compounds in pure form and in pharmaceutical preparations., (© 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

In this study, a new nanocomposite consists of magnetic graphene oxide (GO/Fe 3 O 4 ), poly-methyldopa (PMDA) and Pd nanoparticle was prepared and utilized for constructing an electrochemical sensor to determine acetaminophen (AC) and phenylephrine (PHE). The structure of nanocomposite has been characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The effects of various parameters with effective on the sensor response are optimized. In a range, 5 nM to 2.5 μM for AC and 50 nM to 3 μM for PHE the designed sensor had a response linearly reliant on the AC and PHE concentration respectively by differential pulse voltammetry. Also, the limits of detection for AC and PHE with this sensor were 2.1 nM and 7.8 nM, respectively. It successfully employed for the determination of trace amounts of the AC and PHE in pharmaceutical combination and human serum samples., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Two simple validated and highly selective methods for analysis of paracetamol, codeine, guaifenesin and pseudoephedrine or phenylephrine quaternary mixtures were developed. The first method is a high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection method where separation was successful using Agilent C18 (150 × 4.6 mm) column, gradient elution of phosphate buffer pH 3, methanol and acetonitrile and diode-array detection at 210 nm. The second method is a HPTLC method followed by densitometric measurement of the spots at 257 nm. Separation was carried out on Merck HPTLC aluminum sheets of silica gel using methylene chloride: methanol: glacial acetic acid: ammonia (17.8: 1.68: 0.4: 0.12, v/v) mobile phase. The methods were applied successfully for analysis of both quaternary mixtures in laboratory-prepared tablets and also validated in regards to linearity, precision, accuracy, sensitivity and stability., (© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Two chromatographic methods (high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) and high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector (HPLC-DAD)), were addressed for the analysis of a mixture consisted of phenylephrine hydrochloride and ibuprofen in two forms bulk and their combined dosage form. This binary mixture is considered to be a challenging one as the two drugs differ greatly in their chemical and physical properties. Not only this affects their simultaneous analysis, but also hinders their simultaneous extraction from biological fluids as plasma. That is the reason the literature lacks any report for the simultaneous extraction and analysis of these drugs from biological fluids. The concentration ranges of both drugs were 0.1-2.5 μg/spot and 0.1-100 μg/mL by HPTLC and HPLC, respectively. Not only was the HPLC-DAD method applied to the investigated drugs determination in pharmaceutical preparations, but also in spiked human plasma. Extensive study was conducted to optimize their simultaneous extraction from plasma as it was a crucial step for the in vivo analysis. The results obtained by proposed methods and a reference one were statistically comparable by analysis of variance test. No significant difference was recorded between the mean percent levels determined by the proposed methods and the reference one., (© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Two sensitive chromatographic methods have been developed, and validated for chlorpheniramine maleate (CM), phenylephrine (PE) and guaifenesin (GF) determination in their mixture and in presence of GF related substance guaiacol (GL) and preservative namely; sodium benzoate (NaB). The first method was based on thin layer chromatographic separation (TLC) followed by densitometric determination of the separated spots. The separation was achieved using silica gel 60 F254 TLC plates and ethyl acetate: methanol: toluene: ammonia (7:1.5:1:0.5, by volume) as a developing system. Densitometric quantification of the three drugs was carried by the reflectance mode at 270 nm. The second method was based on the use of high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection, by which the proposed components were separated on a reversed phase C18 analytical column using phosphate buffer pH 2.9 (containing 0.1 g Heptane-1-sulphonic acid sodium salt) and acetonitrile (85:15, v/v) at 0.8 mL/min for 4 minutes then 1 mL/min till end of the run using flow rate online switching technique. Both methods were validated according to the ICH guidelines and successfully applied for the determination of CM, PE, and GF in pure powder and in combined cough syrup without interference from the excipients., (© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Two sensitive, rapid, and accurate derivative emission spectrofluorimetric methods applying zero crossing techniques were developed for simultaneous determination of binary mixtures of ibuprofen (IBU) and phenylephrine hydrochloride (PHE) in pure powder, synthetic mixture and combined tablets. The proposed methods were performed via measuring the intersected drug derivative amplitude of one drug at the zero crossing points for the other one and vice versa. The two methods rely on the measurement of the combined drugs native fluorescence after excitation at 270 nm in methanol directly, followed by differentiation using first (D 1 ) and second derivative (D 2 ) techniques. Applying the D 1 , IBU was measured quantitatively at 293.1 nm at zero crossing of PHE, on the other side; PHE was measured quantitatively at 300.7 nm at zero crossing of IBU. By the same way, applying the D 2 , the wavelengths selected were 303.5 nm for IBU and 312.9 nm for PHE. The concentration plots of derivative fluorescence intensity were rectilinear over the range of 0.5-10 μg/mL and 0.025-0.5 μg/mL for IBU and PHE, respectively. The results obtained with average % recoveries ± RSD are 99.73 ± 0.72 (IBU, D 1 ), 99.49 ± 0.95 (PHE, D 1 ), 99.79 ± 0.47 (IBU, D 2 ), and 99.88 ± 0.34 (PHE, D 2 ) were in good agreement with the comparison method. The proposed methods offer high sensitivity that enable direct analysis of IBU and PHE in spiked human plasma. The proposed methods were entirely validated in terms of ICH guidelines., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: A validated method based on capillary zone electrophoresis coupled with a diode array detector (CZE-DAD) was investigated for analyzing binary mixture of ibuprofen (IBU) and phenylephrine (PHE) in their bulk and combined dosage form. Objective: This binary mixture is a challenging one as IBU is acidic and PHE is alkaline, which may affect their simultaneous analysis using CZE. The literature lacks any CZE report for IBU and PHE simultaneous analysis. Methods: Fused silica capillary (85 cm × 75 μm id) was used, and the electrolyte was a 50 mM borate buffer adjusted to pH 11 with 0.5 M NaOH. Results: The concentration ranges were 5-200 and 5-100 μg/mL for IBU and PHE, respectively, using CZE. High efficiency was achieved (N > 92990). Reasonable migration time (t m ) was attained (t m < 8.5 min). Conclusions: Although the results obtained by the proposed CZE method and reported HPLC method were statistically comparable, the proposed method showed lower linearity ranges, higher efficiency, and a more reasonable run time. Highlights : CZE-DAD was used for the analysis of IBU and PHE in bulk and tablets, as no report was found for their determination using CZE. Binary mixture is challenging due to differences in chemical and physical properties. A detailed discussion of electrophoretic parameters optimization is included. Confirmation of peak purity was attained using DAD.

A new high sensitivity deep-UV LED photometric detector with a z-type flow cell (45 nL or 180 nL) for miniaturised and portable capillary liquid chromatography (LC) was designed and fabricated to overcome sensitivity limitations due to short pathlength in on-capillary detectors. The new detector has a 10 mm geometric pathlength and uses high intensity light-emitting diodes (LED) as light sources in the deep-UV range (254 nm and 280 nm). No optical reference was necessary due to the low drift in the signal. Stray light was minimized by the use of an adjustable slit with a 0.5 mm pinhole. The direct relationship between absorbance and concentration was obtained using dichromate to evaluate the sensitivity and the linearity range of the detector. Performance of the miniaturised version was compared with that obtained from a commercial benchtop detector for capillary LC under the same conditions using the same optical z-cell. The miniaturised version exhibited a superior performance across all parameters, including 3 times higher effective pathlength, 4 times higher upper limit of detector linearity, and 2-5 times lower stray light levels. An application of the new detector was shown with the detection of l-dopa, l-tyrosine, norfenefrine, phenylephrine and tyramine, separated using capillary LC. The baseline noise level recorded was as low as 3.9 μAU. Further, the detector was applied in a miniaturised capillary LC for the indirect detection of common inorganic anions. In comparison to an on-capillary LED detector applied under similar chromatographic conditions, there was a 50 times higher signal to noise (S/N) ratio., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Two binary mixtures containing codeine (COD) with either ibuprofen (IBU), mixture 1, or with phenylephrine hydrochloride (PE), mixture 2, were analyzed using three simple eco-friendly spectrofluorimetric methods without the need to a prior separation step. The first method is derivative emission spectrofluorimetry using λ ex  = 236 nm and 275 nm for mixtures 1 and 2, respectively. The second method is constant-wavelength synchronous spectrofluorimetry using ∆λ = 100 nm and 60 nm for mixtures 1 and 2, respectively. The last method is constant-energy synchronous spectrofluorimetry where a wave number interval of -7000 cm -1 was used for the analysis of the two binary mixtures. All measurements were performed in acetate buffer pH 5 and thus no toxic volatile solvents were used increasing method greenness. High sensitivity was attained for the three studied drugs where the lower limits of quantitation of COD, IBU and PE reached 0.064, 0.512 and 0.087 μg/mL, respectively. Analysis of the two binary mixtures in their tablet and liquid dosage forms was performed with good accuracy and precision using the developed methods. The results of the proposed and reported methods were statistically evaluated using one-way ANOVA test and no significant difference among them was obtained. In addition, all aspects of ICH guidelines on analytical method validation were conducted., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Five simple, sensitive, and eco-friendly LC and UV spectrophotometric methods have been developed for the simultaneous determination of phenylephrine hydrochloride (PHE) and prednisolone acetate (PRD) in their combined dosage form. The first method was reversed-phase (RP) LC using methanol-water-heptane-1-sulfonic acid sodium salt (75 + 25 + 0.1, v/v/w) as a mobile phase. Separation was achieved using an XSelect HSS reversed-phase C18 analytical column (250 × 4.6 mm, 5µm). The flow rate was 1.0 mL/min and UV detection was done at 230 nm. Quantification was achieved over the concentration ranges of 5-50 µg/mL for PHE and 2-90 µg/mL for PRD. Four spectrophotometric methods were proposed, namely dual wavelength, first derivative of ratio spectra, ratio difference, and mean-centering of ratio spectra. Linearity was observed in the concentration ranges of 10-120 and 5-35 µg/mL for PHE and PRD, respectively, for the spectrophotometric methods. Green solvents were used in the proposed methods because they play a vital role in the analytical methods' influence on the environment. The suggested methods were validated regarding linearity, accuracy, and precision according to the International Conference on Harmonization guidelines, with satisfactory results. These methods could be used as harmless substitutes for routine analysis of the mentioned drugs, with no interference from excipients.

Two sensitive, selective, and precise stability-indicating methods have been developed for the simultaneous determination of the active pharmaceutical ingredients cyclopentolate hydrochloride (CLO) and phenylephrine hydrochloride (PHE) in their pure forms and in the presence of their degradation products. The methods were applied for the determination of CLO and PHE in a pharmaceutical formulation. Method A was based on isocratic elution HPLC determination. Separation was achieved using a Waters Spherisorb ODS2 C18 analytical column (5 μm particle size) and a mobile phase of 0.1% heptane-1-sulphonic acid sodium salt in methanol-water (80 + 20, v/v). The flow rate was 1.0 mL/min and detection was performed at 210 nm. Method B was an HPTLC- densitometric method using HPTLC silica gel 60 F254 plates and an optimized mobile phase of ethyl acetate-methanol-ammonia (8 + 2 + 0.1, v/v/v). The separated spots were densitometrically scanned at 210 nm. Polynomial equations were used for regression. The developed methods are suitable for the determination of CLO and PHE in their binary mixture and in the presence of their corresponding degradation products. The two methods were validated in compliance with International Conference on Harmonization guidelines and successfully applied for the determination of CLO and PHE as synthetically prepared in laboratory mixtures and in the presence of their possible degradation products. CLO alkaline degradation products were stated as potential impurities in British Pharmacopoeia. The degradation products were separated and identified by mass spectra. Postulation of a PHE oxidative degradation pathway was suggested. The obtained results were statistically analyzed and compared with those obtained by applying the official methods for both drugs.

The efficacy of phenylephrine (PE) is controversial due to its extensive pre-systemic metabolism through sulfation to form phenylephrine-3-O-sulfate (PES). Hence quantitation of PES is important in order to study the metabolism of PE. There are no published methods available for direction detection of PES. We have developed and validated a hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) method for the direct detection of PES and simultaneous detection of PE to study the enzyme kinetics and metabolism of PE to enable approaches to reduce the presystemic metabolism of PE. This is the first method which facilitates direct detection of PES and simultaneous detection of PE using a zwitterionic HILIC column with improved sensitivity in a single short run. The observed quantitative ranges of our method for PE and PES were 0.39-200μM and 0.0625-32μM (respectively) with a run time of 6.0min. The method was applied to the determination of PE and PES in LS180 human intestinal cell line, recombinant enzymes and human intestinal cytosol (HIC)., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In healthcare settings drug diversion and impairment of physicians are major concerns requiring a rapid and efficient method for surveillance and detection. A Direct Analysis in Real Time ion source coupled to a JEOL AccuTOF TM time-of-flight mass spectrometer (DART-MS) method was developed to screen parenteral pharmaceutical formulations for potential drug diversion. Parenteral pharmaceutical formulations are also known as injectable formulations and are used with intravenous, subcutaneous, intramuscular and intra-articular administration. A library was created using the mass spectra data collected by a DART-MS operated in switching mode at 20, 60 and 90 V settings. This library contained 17 commonly encountered drugs in parenteral pharmaceutical formulations that included the surgical analgesic: fentanyl, hydromorphone and morphine; anesthetic: baclofen, bupivacaine, ketamine, midazolam, ropivacaine and succinylcholine; and a mixture of other drug classes: caffeine, clonidine, dexamethasone, ephedrine, heparin, methadone, oxytocin and phenylephrine. Randomly selected 200 de-identified parenteral pharmaceutical formulations containing one or more drugs were submitted for analysis to the FIRM Toxicology Laboratory at Virginia Commonwealth University Health and were screened using the DART-MS. The drug contents of the de-identified formulations were previously confirmed by a published high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. The drugs in the formulations were rapidly and successfully identified using the generated library. The DART-MS and HPLC results were in complete agreement for all 200 parenteral pharmaceutical formulations., (© The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

A generally applicable high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the qualitative and quantitative determination of pharmaceutical preparations containing phenylephrine hydrochloride, paracetamol, ephedrine hydrochloride, guaifenesin, doxylamine succinate, and dextromethorphan hydrobromide is developed. Optimization of chromatographic conditions was performed for the gradient elution using different buffer pH values, flow rates and two C18 stationary phases. The method was developed using a Kinetex® C18 column as a core-shell stationary phase with a gradient profile using buffer pH 5.0 and acetonitrile at 2.0 mL/min flow rate. Detection was carried out at 220 nm and linear calibrations were obtained for all components within the studied ranges. The method was fully validated in agreement with ICH guidelines. The proposed method is specific, accurate and precise (RSD% < 3%). Limits of detection are lower than 2.0 μg/mL. Qualitative and quantitative responses were evaluated using experimental design to assist the method robustness. The method was proved to be highly robust against 10% change in buffer pH and flow rate (RSD% < 10%), however, the flow rate may significantly influence the quantitative responses of phenylephrine, paracetamol, and doxylamine (RSD% > 10%). Satisfactory results were obtained for commercial combinations analyses. Statistical comparison between the proposed chromatographic and official methods revealed no significant difference., (© 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

The present work describes new spectrophotometric methods for the simultaneous determination of phenylephrine hydrochloride and ketorolac tromethamine in their synthetic mixtures. The applied chemometric techniques are multivariate methods including classical least squares, principal component regression, and partial least squares. In these techniques, the concentration data matrix was prepared by using the synthetic mixtures containing these drugs dissolved in distilled water. The absorbance data matrix corresponding to the concentration data was obtained by measuring the absorbances at 16 wavelengths in the range 244-274 nm at 2 nm intervals in the zero-order spectra. The spectrophotometric procedures do not require any separation steps. The accuracy, precision, and linearity ranges of the methods have been determined, and analyzing synthetic mixtures containing the studied drugs has validated them. The developed methods were successfully applied to the synthetic mixtures and the results were compared to those obtained by a reported HPLC method.

This work describes five simple and reliable spectrophotometric and chromatographic methods for analysis of the binary mixture of ketorolac tromethamine (KTR) and phenylephrine hydrochloride (PHE). Method I is based on the use of conventional Amax and derivative spectrophotometry with the zero-crossing technique where KTR was determined using its Amax and (1)D amplitudes at 323 and 341nm respectively, while PHE was determined by measuring the (1)D amplitudes at 248.5nm. Method II involves the application of the ratio spectra derivative spectrophotometry. For KTR, 12μg/mL PHE was used as a divisor and the (1)DD amplitudes at 265nm were plotted against KTR concentrations; while - by using 4μg/mL KTR as divisor - the (1)DD amplitudes at 243.5nm were found proportional to PHE concentrations. Method III depends on ratio-difference measurement where the peak to trough amplitudes between 260 and 284nm were measured and correlated to KTR concentration. Similarly, the peak to trough amplitudes between 235 and 260nm in the PHE ratio spectra were recorded. For method IV, the two compounds were separated using Merck HPTLC sheets of silica gel 60 F254 and a mobile phase composed of chloroform/methanol/ammonia (70:30:2, by volume) followed by densitometric measurement of KTR and PHE spots at 320 and 278nm respectively. Method V depends on HPLC-DAD. Effective chromatographic separation was achieved using Zorbax eclipse plus C8 column (4.6×250mm, 5μm) with a mobile phase consisting of 0.05M o-phosphoric acid and acetonitrile (50:50, by volume) at a flow rate 1mL/min and detection at 313 and 274nm for KTR and PHE respectively. Analytical performance of the developed methods was statistically validated according to the ICH guidelines with respect to linearity, ranges, precision, accuracy, detection and quantification limits. The validated spectrophotometric and chromatographic methods were successfully applied to the simultaneous analysis of KTR and PHE in synthetic mixtures of different proportions and laboratory-made ophthalmic solution., (Copyright © 2016 Académie Nationale de Pharmacie. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Green chemistry and sustainability is now entirely encompassed across the majority of pharmaceutical companies and research labs. Researchers' attention is careworn toward implementing the green analytical chemistry principles for more eco-friendly analytical methodologies. Solvents play a dominant role in determining the greenness of the analytical procedure. Using safer solvents, the greenness profile of the methodology could be increased remarkably. In this context, a green chromatographic method has been developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of phenylephrine, paracetamol, and guaifenesin in their ternary pharmaceutical mixture. The chromatographic separation was carried out using monolithic column and green solvents as mobile phase. The use of monolithic column allows efficient separation protocols at higher flow rates, which results in short time of analysis. Two-factor three-level experimental design was used to optimize the chromatographic conditions. The greenness profile of the proposed methodology was assessed using eco-scale as a green metrics and was found to be an excellent green method with regard to the usage and production of hazardous chemicals and solvents, energy consumption, and amount of produced waste. The proposed method improved the environmental impact without compromising the analytical performance criteria and could be used as a safer alternate for the routine analysis of the studied drugs., (© 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

A validated and highly selective high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) method was developed for the determination of ketorolac tromethamine (KTC) with phenylephrine hydrochloride (PHE) (Mixture 1) and with febuxostat (FBX) (Mixture 2) in bulk drug and in combined dosage forms. The proposed method was based on HPTLC separation of the drugs followed by densitometric measurements of their spots at 273 and 320 nm for Mixtures 1 and 2, respectively. The separation was carried out on Merck HPTLC aluminum sheets of silica gel 60 F254 using chloroform-methanol-ammonia (7:3:0.1, v/v) and (7.5:2.5:0.1, v/v) as mobile phase for KTC/PHE and KTC/FBX mixtures, respectively. Linear regression lines were obtained over the concentration ranges 0.20-0.60 and 0.60-1.95 µg band(-1)for KTC and PHE (Mixture 1), respectively, and 0.10-1.00 and 0.25-2.50 µg band(-1) for KTC and FBX (Mixture 2), respectively, with correlation coefficients higher than 0.999. The method was successfully applied to the analysis of the two drugs in their synthetic mixtures and in their dosage forms. The mean percentage recoveries were in the range of 98-102%, and the RSD did not exceed 2%. The method was validated according to ICH guidelines and showed good performances in terms of linearity, sensitivity, precision, accuracy and stability., (© The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Three advanced chemmometric-assisted spectrophotometric methods namely; Concentration Residuals Augmented Classical Least Squares (CRACLS), Multivariate Curve Resolution-Alternating Least Squares (MCR-ALS) and Principal Component Analysis-Artificial Neural Networks (PCA-ANN) were developed, validated and benchmarked to PLS calibration; to resolve the severely overlapped spectra and simultaneously determine; Paracetamol (PAR), Guaifenesin (GUA) and Phenylephrine (PHE) in their ternary mixture and in presence of p-aminophenol (AP) the main degradation product and synthesis impurity of Paracetamol. The analytical performance of the proposed methods was described by percentage recoveries, root mean square error of calibration and standard error of prediction. The four multivariate calibration methods could be directly used without any preliminary separation step and successfully applied for pharmaceutical formulation analysis, showing no excipients' interference., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Transmission Raman spectroscopy is a potent new tool for content uniformity testing in pharmaceutical manufacturing enabling rapid bulk sampling of a material by non-destructive means. In this proof-of-concept study, we present, for the first time, comprehensive quantification of all the constituents in a set of tablets consisting of 5 components (3 APIs and 2 excipients) by this method. The nominal concentration of individual components ranged from 1 to 85% (w/w). Two multivariate partial least-squares approaches have been used to calibrate concentration models consisting of 40 handmade tablets covering 20 sample points. These models successfully predicted all the components in a set of 10 validation tablets covering 5 different sample points. A single model for all components (PLS2) and 5 individual models each optimised for one component (PLS1) performed similarity and have been used to demonstrate that specificity of prediction has been achieved through using a multifactor orthogonal DoE for sample preparation. The ability to determine multiple analyte concentrations in one single measurement further establishes this procedure and its benefits for assay and content uniformity testing., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Hypertension is a public health problem and increases the incidence of cardiovascular diseases., Objective: To evaluate the effects of a resistance exercise session on the contractile and relaxing mechanisms of vascular smooth muscle in mesenteric arteries of NG-nitro L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME)-induced hypertensive rats., Methods: Wistar rats were divided into three groups: control (C), hypertensive (H), and exercised hypertensive (EH). Hypertension was induced by administration of 20 mg/kg of L-NAME for 7 days prior to experimental protocols. The resistance exercise protocol consisted of 10 sets of 10 repetitions and intensity of 40% of one repetition maximum. The reactivity of vascular smooth muscle was evaluated by concentration‑response curves to phenylephrine (PHEN), potassium chloride (KCl) and sodium nitroprusside (SNP)., Results: Rats treated with L-NAME showed an increase (p < 0.001) in systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) compared to the initial period of induction. No difference in PHEN sensitivity was observed between groups H and EH. Acute resistance exercise reduced (p < 0.001) the contractile response induced by KCl at concentrations of 40 and 60 mM in group EH. Greater (p < 0.01) smooth muscle sensitivity to NPS was observed in group EH as compared to group H., Conclusion: One resistance exercise session reduces the contractile response induced by KCl in addition to increasing the sensitivity of smooth muscle to NO in mesenteric arteries of hypertensive rats.

The use of the successive projections algorithm (SPA) for elimination of uninformative variables in interval selection, and unfold partial least squares regression (U-PLS) modeling of excitation-emission matrices (EEM), when under the inner filter effect (IFE) is reported for first time. Post-calibration residual bilinearization (RBL) was employed against events of unknown components in the test samples. The inner filter effect can originate changes in both the shape and intensity of analyte spectra, leading to trilinearity losses in both modes, and thus invalidating most multiway calibration methods. The algorithm presented in this paper was named iSPA-U-PLS/RBL. Both simulated and experimental data sets were used to compare the prediction capability during: (1) simulated EEM; and (2) quantitation of phenylephrine (PHE) in the presence of paracetamol (PAR) (or acetaminophen) in water samples. Test sets containing unexpected components were built in both systems [a single interference was taken into account in the simulated data set, while water samples were added with varying amounts of ibuprofen (IBU), and acetyl salicylic acid (ASA)]. The prediction results and figures of merit obtained with the new algorithm were compared with those obtained with U-PLS/RBL (without intervals selection), and with the well-known parallel factors analysis (PARAFAC). In all cases, U-PLS/RBL displayed better EEM handling capability in the presence of the inner filter effect compared with PARAFAC. In addition, iSPA-U-PLS/RBL improved the results obtained with the full U-PLS/RBL model, in this case demonstrating the potential of variable selection.

Rationale: A current challenge for analytical chemists is the development of the measurement systems and approaches required to understand dynamic processes such as tablet dissolution. The design and development of oral tablets could be improved by the availability of detailed information about the rates of release of the individual tablet components. Small footprint mass spectrometry (MS) systems are gaining use for on-line reaction monitoring because of their ability to rapidly determine multiple reactant, intermediate, and product species. We have therefore assessed the utility of such MS systems to the study of dissolution processes., Methods: Aqueous dissolution media containing phosphate and other non-volatile buffer salts were pumped from a standard USPII dissolution vessel through an active splitter and back. The splitter sampled the dissolution stream and diluted it into a make-up flow which was pumped to a small single quadrupole mass spectrometer. Single ion monitoring was used to quantify the ions of interest. Three different bio-relevant dissolution media were studied to gauge the effect of the sample matrix., Results: Individual dissolution profiles were obtained from a tablet containing three drugs, and lactose as the soluble filler. This was successfully demonstrated with three different bio-relevant media designed to reflect the pH of the different sections of the human gastro-intestinal tract. Component concentrations as low as 0.06 µg/mL (representing 1% dissolution) were detected. The MS dissolution profiles correlated with the visual observation of tablet dissolution. MS gave linear responses with concentration for the individual components, although analysis of the tablet solution indicated that ion suppression is an area for further investigation., Conclusions: An on-line MS system was used to determine the individual dissolution profiles of three drugs and lactose as they were released from the same tablet. The level of each of these components in solution was determined every 10 seconds, and each had a similar release profile. The dissolution profiles were determined using inorganic buffer solutions at three different bio-relevant pHs., (Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Rapid, simple and sensitive derivative emission spectrofluorimetric methods have been developed for the simultaneous analysis of binary mixtures of guaifenesin (GUA) and phenylephrine hydrochloride (PHE). The methods are based upon measurement of the native fluorescence intensity of the two drugs at λex = 275 nm in methanolic solutions, followed by differentiation using first (D1) and second (D2) derivative techniques. The derivative fluorescence intensity-concentration plots were rectilinear over a range of 0.1-2 µg/mL for both GUA and PHE. The limits of detection were 0.027 (D1, GUA), 0.025 (D2, GUA), 0.031 (D1, PHE) and 0.033 (D2, PHE) µg/mL and limits of quantitation were 0.089 (D1, GUA), 0.083 (D2, GUA), 0.095 (D1, PHE) and 0.097 (D2, PHE) µg/mL. The proposed derivative emission spectrofluorimetric methods (D1 and D2) were successfully applied for the determination of the two compounds in binary mixtures and tablets with high precision and accuracy. The proposed methods were fully validated as per ICH guidelines., (Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

A methodology based on second-order data (excitation emission matrices) modeling with one of most popular algorithms presenting the second-order advantage, parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC), combined with transference of calibration is proposed to predict the analyte concentration when significant inner filter effects occur, even in the presence of unexpected sample components. The quantitation of phenylephrine hydrochloride (PHE) in water samples (concentrations ranged between 250 and 750 ng mL(-1)) in the presence of ibuprofen, acetyl salicylic acid and paracetamol (which produce inner filter effect across the useful wavelength range) was achieved. The strategy allows reducing the experimental work and increasing the analytical sensitivity in the determination of the analyte of interest in the presence of unexpected compounds and matrix effect caused by inner filter, avoiding the preparation of a large number of solutions and maintaining acceptable figures of merit. Recoveries between 97 and 102% for validation and real spiked water samples, respectively, and a relative prediction error of 5% were achieved. Results were compared with those obtained after the application of the classical standard addition method combined with PARAFAC, carrying out five additions to each sample, in triplicate. The presented methodology constitutes a simple and low-cost method for the determination of PHE in water samples with a considerable reduction in standard handling and time. This methodology can be extended to other systems presenting matrix effect and, consequently, can become in a useful tool to know the amount of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment and to evaluate the effect of conventional wastewater treatment plants in the elimination of pharmaceutical compounds., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In this study, a simple, specific and accurate reverse phase high performance liquid chromatographic method was developed for the simultaneous determination of nimesulide (NS), phenylephrine hydrochloride (PE), chlorpheniramine maleate (CPM) and caffeine anhydrous (CF) in pharmaceutical dosage forms. A reversed phase Hypersil phenyl column (4.6 mm x 25 cm) with mobile phase having pH 5.5 consisting of methanol and buffer (55:45, v/v) was used. The flow rate was 1.0 mL per minute and the effluents were monitored at 214 nm. The retention times of all the drugs were found to be 7.47 min (NS), 3.944 min (PE), 4.55 min (CF) and 17.15 min (CPM), respectively. The linearity for all the drugs was obtained in the range of 300-800 microg/mL (NS), 15-32 microg/mL (PE), 16-32 microg/mL (CPM) and 30-180 microg/mL (CF), respectively. The results of analysis have been well validated according to guidelines of International Conference of Harmonisation of technical requirements for registration of pharmaceuticals for human use. The method was found to be simple, precise, economical, less time consuming and reproducible. Hence, the suggested procedure could be used for the determination of all the four drugs in commercial preparations.

This work describes the development, validation and application of a simple and reliable high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) procedure for the analysis of two pharmaceutical mixtures. The first mixture contains the antihistaminic drug ebastine (EBS) and the famous sympathomimetic drug pseudoephedrine hydrochloride (PSD), and the second mixture is composed of EBS and another sympathomimetic agent, phenylephrine hydrochloride (PHR). Effective chromatographic separation of EBS, PSD and PHR was achieved using a Zorbax SB-C8 (4.6 × 250 mm, 5 μm) column with gradient elution of the mobile phase composed of 0.05M phosphoric acid and acetonitrile. The gradient elution started with 20% (by volume) acetonitrile, ramped up linearly to 90% in 5 min, then kept constant until the end of the run. The mobile phase was pumped at a flow rate of 1 mL/min. The multiple wavelength detector was set at 254 (for EBS and PSD) and 274 nm (for PHR) and quantification of the analytes was based on measuring their peak areas. The retention times for PHR, PSD and EBS were approximately 2.5, 2.9 and 7.1 min, respectively. The reliability and analytical performance of the proposed HPLC procedure were statistically validated with respect to linearity, ranges, precision, accuracy, selectivity, robustness and detection and quantification limits. Calibration curves were linear in the ranges 5-100, 100-1,000 and 10-200 µg/mL for EBS, PSD and PHR, respectively, with correlation coefficients > 0.9996. The validated HPLC method was applied to the analysis of the two pharmaceutical mixtures in laboratory-made tablets in which the analytes were successfully quantified with good recovery values and no interfering peaks were encountered from the inactive ingredients. Finally, the proposed method made use of DAD as a tool for peak identity and purity confirmation.

In this paper, spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS) is demonstrated for noninvasively investigating the composition of drug mixtures inside an opaque plastic container. The mixtures consisted of three components including a target drug (acetaminophen or phenylephrine hydrochloride) and two diluents (glucose and caffeine). The target drug concentrations ranged from 5% to 100%. After conducting SORS analysis to ascertain the Raman spectra of the concealed mixtures, principal component analysis (PCA) was performed on the SORS spectra to reveal trends within the data. Partial least squares (PLS) regression was used to construct models that predicted the concentration of each target drug, in the presence of the other two diluents. The PLS models were able to predict the concentration of acetaminophen in the validation samples with a root-mean-square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 3.8% and the concentration of phenylephrine hydrochloride with an RMSEP of 4.6%. This work demonstrates the potential of SORS, used in conjunction with multivariate statistical techniques, to perform noninvasive, quantitative analysis on mixtures inside opaque containers. This has applications for pharmaceutical analysis, such as monitoring the degradation of pharmaceutical products on the shelf, in forensic investigations of counterfeit drugs, and for the analysis of illicit drug mixtures which may contain multiple components.

This paper deals with the problem of fuzzy nonlinear model identification in the framework of a local model network (LMN). A new iterative identification approach is proposed, where supervised and unsupervised learning are combined to optimize the structure of the LMN. For the purpose of fitting the cluster-centers to the process nonlinearity, the Gustafsson-Kessel (GK) fuzzy clustering, i.e., unsupervised learning, is applied. In combination with the LMN learning procedure, a new incremental method to define the number and the initial locations of the cluster centers for the GK clustering algorithm is proposed. Each data cluster corresponds to a local region of the process and is modeled with a local linear model. Since the validity functions are calculated from the fuzzy covariance matrices of the clusters, they are highly adaptable and thus the process can be described with a very sparse amount of local models, i.e., with a parsimonious LMN model. The proposed method for constructing the LMN is finally tested on a drug absorption spectral process and compared to two other methods, namely, Lolimot and Hilomot. The comparison between the experimental results when using each method shows the usefulness of the proposed identification algorithm.

Different pharmaceutical preparations against the common cold containing phenylephrine (PHE) and saccharose were studied. New impurities were discovered in these preparations after exposure using isocratic ion-pair chromatography separation on a C18 column. LC-MS and NMR techniques were employed to identify and to fully characterize these new compounds. The products were identified as 1-[5-(hydroxymethyl)-2-furyl]-2-methyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisochinolin-4,8-diol and 1-[5-(hydroxymethyl)-2-furyl]-2-methyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisochinolin-4,6-diol. Identification of these degradation products allowed to understand and to confirm their formation mechanism. The developed HPLC method separates of all known impurities and impurities originated from PHE as well., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A method for the determination of three adrenergic drugs, including phenylephrine hydrochloride (PHE), metaraminol bitartrate (MR) and isoprenaline hydrochloride (IP), was developed using capillary electrophoresis with amperometric detection. The detection potential of working electrode was 0.950 V versus the reference electrode of Ag/AgCl. At the applied voltage of 18 kV, the three analytes were completely separated within 18 min in 50 mmol/L borate buffer (pH 10.00) with the injection time of 10 s. Good linear relationships were obtained for all the three analytes in the range of 2-100 micromol/L. The detection limits for PHE, MR and IP were 0.8, 0.8 and 1.0 micromol/L, respectively. The proposed method was applied to the analysis of some injection drugs, and the results were satisfactory.

A rapid procedure based on a direct extraction and HPLC determination with fluorescence detection of phenylephrine in pharmaceutical sachets that include a large excess of paracetamol (65 + 1, w/w), ascorbic acid (5 + 1, w/w), and other excipients (aspartame and sucrose) was developed and validated. The final optimized chromatographic method for ion-pair chromatography used an XTerra RP18 column, 3 microm particle size, 50 x 3.0 mm id. The mobile phase consisted of a mixture of acetonitrile and buffer (10 mM sodium octane-1-sulfonate, adjusted with H3PO4 to pH 2.2; 200 + 800, v/v), with a constant flow rate of 0.3 mL/min. The separation was carried out at 30 degrees C, and the injection volume was 3 microL. Fluorescence detection was performed at excitation and emission wavelengths of 275 and 310 nm, respectively. The mobile phase parameters, such as the organic solvent fraction (acetonitrile) in mobile phase as an organic modifier, the concentration of sodium octane-1-sulfonate as a counter-ion, temperature, and pH of mobile phase, were studied. As an alternative to ion-pair chromatography, hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) was investigated using a Luna HILIC column, 3 microm, 100 x 4.6 mm id. The mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile and buffer (5 mM potassium dihydrogen phosphate, adjusted with H3PO4 to pH 2.5; 750 + 250, v/v) at a flow rate of 0.8 mL/min. The separation was carried out at 25 degrees C, and the injection volume was 5 microL. The proposed method has an advantage of a very simple sample pretreatment, and is much faster than the currently utilized HPLC methods using gradient elution and UV detection. Commercial samples of sachets were successfully analyzed by the proposed HPLC method.

A liquid chromatographic method was applied for the analysis of two sustained-release mixtures containing dextromethorphane hydrobromide, carbinoxamine maleate with either phenylephrine hydrochloride in pharmaceutical capsules (Mix 1) or phenyl-propanolamine, methylparaben, and propylparaben, which bonds as a drug base to ion exchange resin in pharmaceutical syrup (Mix 2). The method was used for their simultaneous determination using a CN column with a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile-12 mM ammonium acetate in the ratio of 60:40 (v/v, pH 6.0) for Mix 1 and 45:55 (v/v, pH 6.0) for Mix 2.

The frequently used sympathomimetic drug phenylephrine has been studied by electrospray ionisation-mass spectrometry. The stability of the adrenoceptor agonist was examined by investigations of the pharmaceutically used salts phenylephrine hydrochloride and phenylephrine bitartrate. Photostability has been studied by use of an irradiation equipment emitting a solar radiation spectrum. The experiments were carried out by analysis of aqueous drug solutions before and after irradiation treatment. The phenylephrine derivative with unsaturated side chain originating from the drug by loss of one water molecule has been detected as the major degradation product of both phenylephrine salts the hydrochloride and the bitartrate. Further degradation and oxidation products were detectable already in the full scan mode demonstrating a low stability of the drug. Tandem mass spectrometry and multiple stage mass spectrometry experiments enabled the establishment of fragmentation schemes of both salts for the first time. Irradiation treatment indicated that phenylephrine bitartrate is more prone to degradation than the hydrochloride because of an additional decomposition sensitivity of the tartaric acid counter ion. An interaction between phenylephrine and its counter ion degradation products via a nucleophilic addition mechanism is suggested to be the explanation for the detected ion signals after irradiation treatment of phenylephrine bitartrate., (Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Resolution of binary mixtures of paracetamol, phenylephrine hydrochloride and chlorpheniramine maleate with minimum sample pre-treatment and without analyte separation has been successfully achieved by methods of partial least squares algorithm with one dependent variable, principal component regression and hybrid linear analysis. Data of analysis were obtained from UV-vis spectra of the above compounds. The method of central composite design was used in the ranges of 1-15 mg L(-1) for both calibration and validation sets. The models refinement procedure and their validation were performed by cross-validation. Figures of merit such as selectivity, sensitivity, analytical sensitivity and limit of detection were determined for all three compounds. The procedure was successfully applied to simultaneous determination of the above compounds in pharmaceutical tablets., (Copyright 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A fast, accurate, precise and sensitive capillary electrophoresis method for the simultaneous determination of dextromethorphan hydrobromide, phenylephrine hydrochloride, paracetamol and chlorpheniramine maleate has been developed. Response surface methodology with a central composite design was used for optimization of the concentration of the buffer, pH of the buffer and applied voltage. Therefore, working with Na(2)HPO(4) buffer (pH 8.00, 0.01 M) at 20 kV as an applied voltage in the capillary electrophoresis method were found to be suitable; under these optimal conditions, these four active ingredients were separated in about 7 min. This developed method was validated and successfully applied to a pharmaceutical preparation, sugar-coated tablet, and the results were compared with a high-performance liquid chromatographic method developed by us.

Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were applied as molecular recognition elements to an electrochemical sensor for phenylephrine. A MIPs membrane was created on a glassy carbon electrode. SEM revealed a gradual change on the morphology of modified electrodes as the ratios of function monomer and cross-linking varied. When the ratio was 4:40, the surface morphology between the imprinted electrode (M-electrode) and the control electrode (N-electrode) became unambiguously different. This artificial receptor exhibited high selectivity for the template compared to closely related analogue. The response of the sensor varied in different concentration range might due to the heterogeneity of the MIPs membrane. This sensor was also used to determine phenylephrine in tablet samples.

A simple and reliable high-performance liquid chromatographic method was developed for the simultaneous determination of mixture of phenylephrine hydrochloride (PHENYL), guaifenesin (GUAIF), and chlorpheniramine maleate (CHLO) either in pure form or in the presence of methylparaben and propylparaben in a commercial cough syrup dosage form. Separation was achieved on a C8 column using 0.005 M heptane sulfonic acid sodium salt (pH 3.4 +/- 0.1) and acetonitrile as a mobile phase by gradient elution at different flow rates, and detection was done spectrophotometrically at 210 nm. A linear relationship in the range of 30-180, 120-1800, and 10-60 microg/mL was obtained for PHENYL, GUAIF, and CHLO, respectively. The results were statistically analyzed and compared with those obtained by applying the British Pharmacopoeia (2002) method and showed that the proposed method is precise, accurate, and can be easily applied for the determination of the drugs under investigation in pure form and in cough syrup formulations.

Phenylephrine (i.e. PHE) and chlorprothixene (i.e. CPT), two effective and important antipsychotic drugs with low redox activity, were found generating an irreversible anodic peak at about +0.89 V (vs. SCE) and +1.04 V in 0.05 M HAc-NaAc (pH 5.0) or NH(2)CH(2)COOH-HCl (pH 2.4) buffer solution at poly(4-aminobenzene sulfonic acid) modified glassy carbon electrode (i.e. poly(4-ABSA)/GC), respectively. Sensitive and quantitative measurement for them based on the anodic peaks was established under the optimum conditions. The anodic peak current was linear to PHE and CPT concentrations from 1 x 10(-7) to 1.5 x 10(-5)M and 2 x 10(-6) to 4.5 x 10(-5)M, the detection limits obtained were 1 x 10(-8) and 1 x 10(-7)M, separately. The modified electrode exhibited some excellent characteristics including easy regeneration, high stability, good reproducibility and selectivity. The method proposed was successfully applied to the determination of PHE and CPT in drug injections or tablets and proved to be reliable compared with ultraviolet spectrophotometry. The modified electrode was characterized by electrochemical methods.

This study was designed to analyse the two enantiomers of abuterol in urine after the inhalation of a single dose of racemic albuterol from three dry powder inhalers by human volunteers. Urine samples were collected over 24h and analysed by HPLC-with fluorescence detection. Albuterol and its metabolites in urine could only have resulted from pulmonary absorption because gastrointestinal absorption was prevented. Unchanged albuterol and its conjugated metabolites were detected in the urine of healthy volunteers at much higher levels than in the urine of the asthmatics. Also, the amount of S-(+)-isomer excreted in urine was higher than that of the R-(--)-isomer. These differences did not arise as a consequence of either the formulation or the inter-conversion of two isomers in the urine. There is a relationship between the improvement of mid-expiratory flow (FEF(25-75)) and the amount of R-(--)-albuterol remaining to be excreted. The elimination rate constants of the parent drug in healthy volunteers of both R-(--)- and S-(+)-isomers were higher than those of the respective conjugated metabolites. The mean S/R ratio of the parent drug was about unity initially and increased to about 1.5 in the urine collected between 12 and 24h. The values of S/R ratio of the conjugated metabolites in the healthy volunteers were in the range 1.2-2.4, with the value increasing over the time of collection before reaching a plateau. This also occurred with the asthmatics, but the ratios were higher, in the range of 2.0-4.5. In summary, the urinary level of albuterol following in vivo inhalation was found to correlate with in vitro deposition data from the dry powder inhaler.

A liquid chromatography method using volatile ion-pairing reagents and tandem mass spectrometry was developed to obviate observed matrix effect for ionizable polar compounds. The present study investigated the addition of volatile ion-pair reagents to the reconstitution solution instead of the mobile phase to enhance the efficiency of chromatographic separation and minimize the sensitivity loss due to the formation of ion-pairs. The volatile ion-pair reagents used were perfluorinated carboxylic acids with n-alkyl chains: heptafluorobutanoic acid (HFBA), nonafluoropentanoic acid (NFPA), tridecafluoroheptanoic acid (TDFHA) and pentadecafluorooctanoic acid (PDFOA). The model analytes evaluated were N-methylnicotinamide (MNA) chloride, N-methyl 2-pyridone 5-carboxamide (2PY) and phenylephrine. The effects of alkyl chain length and the concentrations of the ion-pair reagents on the retention of analytes were studied, as well as the effect of pH on the retention of phenylephrine. The volatile ion-pair reagents in the reconstitution solution showed significant effect on the retention of the ionizable polar compounds, and the sensitivity of detection was improved for plasma samples through decreasing the matrix effect. This methodology was successfully applied to establish a quantitative assay for the polar drug substance methadone in human plasma with a concentration range from 0.1 to 50 ng/mL. Ion-pair reagents not only shifted the retention time but also reduced the carry-over peak for methadone.

The performance of five reversed-phase columns which included a standard C18 phase, a polar embedded phase (amide group), a polyethyleneglycol phase, a cyano phase, and a perfluorinated phase, all coming from the same manufacturer, have been studied. They were systematically compared with a test mixture containing basic, neutral and acidic compounds of very different polarities, as well as different functional groups (acetaminophen, phenylephrine hydrochloride or phenylpropanolamine hydrochloride, chlorpheniramine maleate, 4-aminophenol, 4-chloracetanilide and 4-nitrophenol) at three pH levels (2.5, 4.6 and 7.0) and three proportions of buffer/acetonitrile (80:20, 50:50 and 20:80, v/v). The results obtained have permitted our group to develop unique applications with these columns, as these compounds are not only a test mixture, due to their chemical characteristics, but they are also usually contained in pharmaceutical formulations for the relief of common cold symptoms and have been selected as a real-life case study. Moreover, after observing the reversed-phase and normal-phase-like characteristics for certain analytes on the perfluorinated phase, a systematic study was developed in this column to understand the chromatographic behaviour of these compounds at three pH (2.5, 4.6 and 7.0) and seven different organic proportions from 20 to 80% acetonitrile. The predominant electrostatic interactions observed on the perfluorinated phase could explain its special behaviour and the high retention at higher percentages of organic solvent, especially for amine compounds, which makes this column very advantageous in working with LC/MS. Different applications with volatile buffers, such as TFA at pH 2.5 and ammonium acetate at pH 4.6 and 7.0, were also considered. Some results have been related to parameters frequently employed for column description.

A procedure is presented for the simultaneous determination of phenylephrine HCI (PE), chlorpheniramine maleate (CM), and methscopolamine nitrate in commercial tablets or capsules by liquid chromatography (LC) with 2 UV absorbance detectors in series. Reference and sample solutions are prepared in methanol. LC separations are performed on a 7.5 cm Novapak silica column. The mobile phase is prepared by mixing 930 mL methanol with 70 mL of a 0.5% aqueous solution of 1-pentanesulfonic acid, sodium salt. The injection volume is 20 microL; the flow rate is approximately 1 mL/min. Retention times are approximately 1.5 min for PE, 3 min for CM, and 6 min for methscopolamine nitrate. One detector determines the first 2 compounds at 265 nm, but the third compound does not produce a detectable peak. The other detector set at 210 nm generates peaks for all 3 compounds, but only methscopolamine is within the recorder range; the other 2 compounds are exceedingly off scale. If it is not feasible or desirable to arrange 2 UV absorbance detectors in series, separate determinations can be made, one for the first 2 compounds and the other for the third component of the mixture. Two commercial samples of tablets and 2 commercial samples of capsules were analyzed by the proposed method. Recovery studies were also conducted with amounts of the 3 compounds ranging from 80 to 120% of the quantities present in the sample solutions.

Three methods were applied for the analysis of 2 multicomponent mixtures containing dextromethorphan hydrobromide, phenylephrine hydrochloride, chlorpheniramine maleate, methylparaben, and propylparaben, together with either sodium benzoate (Mix 1) or ephedrine hydrochloride and benzoic acid (Mix 2). In the first method, liquid chromatography was used for their simultaneous determination using an ODS column with a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile-phosphate buffer, pH 2.7 (40 + 60, v/v), containing 5mM heptanesulfonic acid sodium salt and ultraviolet (UV) detection at 214 nm. Also, 2 chemometric methods, principal component regression, and partial least squares were used. For both chemometric calibrations, a concentration set of the mixture consisting of each compound in each mixture was prepared in distilled water. The absorbance data in the UV spectra were measured for the 76 or 71 wavelength points in the spectral region 210-240 or 210-224 nm considering the intervals of deltagamma = 0.4 or 0.2 nm for Mix 1 and Mix 2, respectively. The 2 chemometric methods did not require any separation step. These methods were successfully applied for the analysis of the 2 multicomponent combinations in synthetic mixtures and in commercial syrups, and the results were compared with each other.

The Food and Drug Administration recently banned the sale of ephedra alkaloids because of their association with arrhythmic sudden death, myocardial infarction, and stroke. This has resulted in the emergence of formulations marketed for weight loss and performance enhancement that are "ephedra free" but contain other sympathomimetic substances, the safety of which has not been established. We report a case of exercise-induced syncope in a healthy 22-year-old woman that occurred 1 hour after she took the second dose of Xenadrine EFX, an ephedra-free weight-loss supplement. Electrocardiography revealed prolongation of the QT interval (corrected QT, 516 milliseconds); this resolved in 24 hours. Results of echocardiography and exercise stress testing were normal. Nine months of monitoring with an implanted loop recorder revealed no arrhythmias in the absence of Xenadrine EFX. Although this product contains a number of compounds whose pharmacologic effect is poorly characterized, notable quantities of phenylephrine are present, and the proarrhythmic potential of this compound in the setting of exercise is discussed.

A new polar reverse phase stationary phase has permitted our group to develop and validate an isocratic HPLC method for the simultaneous determination of acetaminophen, phenylephrine and chlorpheniramine in capsules as pharmaceutical formulation after their dissolution test. Final optimised chromatographic conditions employed a Supelco Discovery HS PEG column (polyethylene glycol), 5 microm, 15 cm x 0.46 cm. The mobile phase was 20 mM phosphate buffer at pH 7.0/acetonitrile 80:20 (v/v) at a flow rate of 1 ml/min. UV detection was performed at 210 nm for phenylephrine and chlorpheniramine and at 305 nm for acetaminophen. On the other hand, to evaluate the capability of CE to work in a routine analytical method fulfilling the pharmaceutical requirements and to study the behaviour of the technique with these compounds, we developed a CE method with the same objective. Normal and reverted polarity, the pH and concentration of the buffer, and the presence and concentration of surfactants were assayed. Forty millimolar phosphate buffer at pH 6.20 with 0.5 mM SDS at 30k V in an uncoated silica capillary provided a runtime of 4.5 min to separate the three analytes and the excipients. Moreover, parameters affecting precision in CE, such as the injection of buffer after the sample to refill the capillary were also tested. After development, the validation was performed in parallel for HPLC and CE with the same standards and samples to avoid differences due to the manipulation. The validation parameters of both techniques were adequate for the intended purpose., (Copyright 2004 Elsevier B.V.)