Determination of lacidipine from urine by HPTLC using off-line SPE

A simple, rapid and sensitive high performance thin layer chromatographic method was developed and validated for the estimation of lacidipine. The sample preparation involved protein precipitation followed by an efficient solid phase extraction on C18 cartridge. The analytes were isolated from 1 ml of urine and recovered by pure ethyl acetate solution. The method employed TLC aluminium plate precoated with silica gel 60F254 as the stationary phase. The solvent system employed consists of toulene-ethyl acetate [6.5:3.5v/v]. This system gave a dense and compact spot of the drug at R(f) value of 0.45. The linear regression data for the calibration plots showed good linear relationship (r=0.999) over the concentration range 10-80 ng. Recovery studies were performed at two different levels. The recovery data reveals that the R.S.D. for intra-day and inter-day analysis at 10 ng was found to be 0.84 and 0.22%, respectively. The proposed method was found to be useful for the routine analysis of pharmaceuticals and pharmacokinetic studies in human urine samples.