Comparison of UV-spectrophotometry and highperformance liquid chromatography for determination of chlorpheniramine maleate in tablet in the presence of tartrazine

Abstract

The presence of tartrazine, yellow coloring agent, suspected to interfere with the CPM determinationin CPM tablets using direct spectrophotometry or high performance liquid chromatography. Overlap spectra oftartrazine and CPM at an analytical wavelength and peak tailing were the main problem occurs in CPM tabletsanalysis. The aim of this study was to develop a derivative UV spectrophotometry and a modified HPLC to overcomethe problem in CPM tablet analysis. Both validated methods were applied for the determination of CPM content inthree registered CPM tablets. As a result, the first derivative spectrophotometry method obtained the δA/δλ oftartrazine in matrix tablet was nearly zero at the wavelength of 232 nm and did not interfere with the δA/δλ of CPM.The selective mobile phase for separation of CPM from tartrazine using HPLC method was a mixture of phosphatebuffer pH 4 and methanol (60:40 v/v) with a flow rate of 1 ml/min. The CPM separated from tartrazine and otherpeaks in sample(s) with Rs of >1.5 The linearity, accuracy, and precision of these two methods fulfilled the referencerequirement. No significant difference observed between the CPM content in artificial tablets when analyzed usingfirst-derivative spectrophotometry and HPLC method. The concentration of CPM in one registered tablet that hadbeen assayed using spectrophotometry, HPLC and the standard method was not significantly different. As aconclusion first-derivative spectrophotometry and HPLC method were valid for the determination of CPM in a tabletcontaining tartrazine. However, the first-derivative spectrophotometry method was more efficient than HPLC.