Analytical Sciences

Comparison of Second Derivative-Spectrophotometric and Reversed-phase HPLC Methods for the Determination of Prednisolone in Pharmaceutical Formulations

D. K. SINGH and Rohan VERMA

Analytical Research Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Harcourt Butler Technological Institute, Kanpur-208 002, India

Second derivative-spectrophotometric and high-performance liquid chromatographic methods for the determination of prednisolone in pharmaceutical formulations have been developed. Determination of prednisolone in tablets was conducted by using a second-order derivative UV spectrophotometric method at 250 nm (n = 5). Standards for the calibration graph ranging from 5.0 to 35.0 µg/ml were prepared from stock solution. The proposed method was accurate, with 98% recovery value, and precise, with a coefficient of variation (CV) of 1.38. These results were compared with those obtained by an exclusively developed isocratic reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. An isocratic reversed-phase Bondapak C₁₈ column with acetonitrile-citrophosphate buffer (pH 5; 45:55 v/v) mobile phase was used and UV detector was set to 241 nm using 11 α-hydroxyprogesterone as an internal standard. Calibration solutions used in HPLC were in the range from 2 to 300 µg/ml. Results obtained by derivative UV spectrophotometric method were comparable to those obtained by HPLC method, as far as analysis of variance (ANOVA) test, F_calculated, 0.762 and F_theoretical, 3.89, results were concerned.

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