Development and Validation of Stability Indicating HPTLC Assay for Determination of Gemifloxacin Mesylate in Dosage Forms

Abstract

Simple and sensitive stability-indicating high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) assay was developed and validated for quantitative determination of the antibacterial drug, gemifloxacin mesylate (GFX) in presence of its degradation products and ambroxol hydrochloride. The chromatographic separation was performed on HPTLC precoated silica gel plate 60F 254 as stationary phase. The mobile phase consisted of a mixture of ethyl acetate: methanol: 25% ammonia, (8:4.5:3, v/v/v). The detection was performed using fluorescence mode and the emission intensity was measured using optical filter K400 after excitation at 342 nm. The R f value for GFX was 0.47 ± 0.03. Good correlation coefficient was obtained over the concentration range of 1.5 - 180 ng/band. The LOD and LOQ of the proposed method were 0.28 and 0.86 ng/band, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied for the analysis of GFX in its single and combined dosage forms. Moreover, it was utilized to investigate the kinetics of acidic, alkaline, neutral, oxidative and photolytic degradation of the drug. The apparent kinetic-order rate constants and half-life times of the degradation process were calculated. Furthermore, the proposed method was successfully applied for investigating the factors affecting the storage of GFX.