HPTLC determination of ceftriaxone, cefixime and cefotaxime in dosage forms

Abstract

The objective of this investigation was to develop an HPTLC method for the determination of ceftriaxone, cefixime and cefotaxime, cephalosporins widely used in clinical practice. High performance thin-layer chromatography of cephalosporins was performed on pre-coated silica gel HPTLC plates with concentration zones (2.5×10cm), development with mobile phase ethylacetate-acetone-methanol-water (5:2.5:2.5:1.5 v/v). A TLC scanner (Camag, Muttenz, Switzerland) set at 270 nm was used for direct evaluation of the chromatograms in reflectance/absorbance mode. The calibration curves were established dependant of peak height (linear and polinomial regression) and peak area (polinomial regression) vs ng level (125-500 ng for all cephalosporins investigated). Coefficients of variation obtained from calibration curves were compared. Precision (c.v.: 1.12-2.91% (peak height vs ng) and c.v.: 1.05-2.75% (peak area vs ng)), and detection limits (ng level) were found to be satisfactory. The method is reproducible and convenient for quantitative analysis of ceftriaxone, cefixime and cefotaxime raw materials and their different dosage forms.