A new approach to quantitative NMR: fluoroquinolones analysis by evaluating the chemical shift displacements

Quantitative NMR spectroscopy is always an attractive goal as the identity and quantity could be simultaneously determined. Although significant advancements have been achieved in this field it is common that all reported quantitative NMR methods perform the analysis by utilizing the average integral intensities of selected signals. During the calculation of the area under NMR peaks several response problems can occur which should always be treated carefully to overcome inaccuracies. In the method proposed in this work the quantitative information is obtained utilizing the measurement of selected protons chemical shift displacements which is a quite straightforward and highly reproducible process. The (1)H NMR spectra of multiple fluoroquinolone (FQ) solutions revealed that the chemical shifts of protons, especially the aromatic ones, were concentration dependent for all tested compounds, as a result of extensive self-association phenomena. In the present work a novel methodology is described for the quantitation of several FQs based on this dependence. The proposed method was applied to Ciprofloxacin solutions over a wide range of concentrations. Evaluation of the obtained data presented acceptable characteristics regarding accuracy, precision, and robustness. The applicability limitations of this method were found to be posed by current instrumentation, mainly by the magnetic field frequency e.g. the slope of the response function achieved with a 400MHz instrument was twice the one achieved at 200MHz. The pH effect was negligible from pD 2.5 to 5.5. The phenomenon appeared in a pattern that can be applied for a plethora of drug categories revealing self-association phenomena in a range of concentration determined by the magnet strength of the instrument.