Simultaneous determination of alprazolam and fluoxetine hydrochloride in tablet formulations by high-performance...

This paper describes validated HPLC and HPTLC methods for simultaneous determination of alprazolam (ALP) and fluoxetine hydrochloride (FXT) in pure powder and formulation. The HPLC separation was achieved on a Nucleosil C8 column (150 mm length, 4.6 mm id, 5 microm particle size) using acetonitrile-phosphate buffer pH 5.5 (45 + 55, v/v) as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min at ambient temperature. The HPTLC separation was achieved on an aluminum-backed layer of silica gel 60F254 using acetone-toluene-ammonia (6.0 + 3.5 + 0.5, v/v/v) as the mobile phase. Quantification in the HPLC method was achieved with UV detection at 230 nm over the concentration range 4-14 microg/mL for both drugs, with mean recovery of 99.95 +/- 0.38 and 99.85 +/- 0.56% for ALP and FXT, respectively. Quantification in the HPTLC method was achieved with UV detection at 230 nm over the concentration range of 400-1400 ng/spot for both drugs, with mean recovery of 99.32 +/- 0.45 and 99.78 +/- 0.81% for ALP and FXT, respectively. These methods are simple, precise, and sensitive, and they are applicable for the simultaneous determination of ALP and FXT in pure powder and formulations.