HPTLC determination of nimesulide from pharmaceutical dosage forms

A simple, rapid, reproducible and stability indicating high performance thin-layer chromatographic method for the analysis of Nimesulide both the bulk drug and from pharmaceutical formulations is reported. The mobile phase selected consists of Cyclohexane-Ethylacetate [60:40, v/v]. It gave compact spots both for Nimesulide and its degraded products at Rf values 0.44 and 0.712, respectively. Densitometric analysis of nimesulide was carried out at 295 nm. The calibration curve of Nimesulide in methanol was linear in the range of 100-900 ng. The mean value of correlation coefficient, slope and intercept were 0.9989+/-0.0011, 504.655+/-0.0013 and 85331.56+/-0.0253, respectively. The limits of detection and quantitation were 60 and 100 ng, respectively. The drug content was within the limits (+/-5% of the labelled content of the formulations). The recovery of Nimesulide was about 99.5%.