Liquid Chromatographic Determination of Ergotamine Tartrate in its Combined Tablets using Fluorimetric and UV Detection: Application to Content Uniformity Testing

Abstract

A simple, rapid, precise, accurate, and sensitive reversed phase liquid chromatographic method has been developed for the determination of ergotamine tartrate in its combined tablets. Reversed phase chromatography was conducted using a Zorbax® SB-Phenyl column (250.0 mm × 4.6 mm id) combined with a guard column (Merck, Darmstadt, Germany) at ambient temperature with either UV-detection at 240 nm to determine ergotamine tartrate in a mixture with metoclopramide, caffeine, and paracetamol, or fluorimetric detection at 360 nm after excitation at 310 nm permitting determination of the concerned drug only with metoclopramide. A mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile: water (50:50, v/v) adjusted to pH 3, has been used in both cases at a flow rate of 1 mL/min. Sharp well-resolved peaks were obtained using both detection techniques. For UV detection, the retention times for ergotamine tartrate, metoclopramide, caffeine, and paracetamol were 4.1, 3.5, 2.5, and 2.1 minutes, respectively. While with fluorimetric detection, retention times of 3.8 and 3.4 minutes for ergotamine tartrate and metoclopramide were obtained, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied for the analysis of ergotamine tartrate in its commercial tablets; the obtained results were favorably compared with those obtained by the comparison methods. Furthermore, content uniformity testing of the studied tablets was also conducted.

Keywords:

• caffeine
• combined tablets
• ergotamine
• liquid chromatography
• metoclopramide
• paracetamol