Simultaneous Determination of Maprotiline, Desipramine, and Moclobemide by Reversed-Phase High-Performance Liquid Chromatography and Statistical Optimization

Abstract

A method for separation of three antidepressants, maprotiline, desipramine, and moclobemide, by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) was developed and validated. To find optimal conditions and estimate the impact of individual parameters on the separation, a complete set of 2³ interdependent relationships of the mobile phase composition, temperature, and the volume flow rate were examined. Full separation of the investigated components from a laboratory mixture was achieved on a Supelcosil LC-18 (120 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 µm) column, using two solvent systems, 3% ammonium ion in water/ethanol and acetonitrile, and alternating isocratic gradient–isocratic elution modes. Relevance of the proposed method for therapeutic drug monitoring is anticipated.

Keywords:

• Antidepressants
• desipramine
• maprotiline
• moclobemide
• pharmaceutical formulations
• RP-HPLC
• statistical optimization

We gratefully acknowledge the partial financial support of Grants No. 142072 and 142047 from the Ministry for Science, Technology, and Development of the Republic of Serbia.

Notes

Notes. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantitation (LOQ) were calculated as LOD = 3σ/S and LOQ = 10σ/S, where (is the standard deviation and S the intercept determined from the corresponding calibration curve. t_tab = 2.447 (p = 0.05, f = 6).