Simultaneous microemulsion liquid chromatographic analysis of fat-soluble vitamins in pharmaceutical formulations:...

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Chromatography

Background:

• Accurate determination of fat-soluble vitamins is crucial for nutritional assessment and quality control.
• Traditional methods for vitamin separation can be complex and time-consuming.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and optimize an environmentally benign and simple method for the separation and determination of fat-soluble vitamins.
• To utilize isocratic microemulsion liquid chromatography (MELC) for enhanced vitamin analysis.

Main Methods:

• Isocratic microemulsion liquid chromatography (MELC) was employed for vitamin separation.
• A genetic algorithm (GA) coupled with multiple linear regression (MLR) was used for simultaneous optimization of chromatographic parameters.
• A novel software package, MLR-GA, was developed to facilitate the optimization process.

Main Results:

• Optimal separation conditions were identified: 73.6mM sodium dodecyl sulfate, 13.64% 1-butanol, 0.48% diethyl ether, 32.5°C, and pH 6.99.
• The method demonstrated excellent linearity (0.01-10mgmL⁻¹), high accuracy (recoveries >94.3%), and precision (RSD <3.96%).
• Low detection limits (1.06-3.69µgmL⁻¹) were achieved for fat-soluble vitamins.

Conclusions:

• The developed isocratic MELC method offers a simple, efficient, and environmentally friendly approach for fat-soluble vitamin analysis.
• The method was successfully applied to determine vitamin content in multivitamin syrup and fish oil capsules, showing good agreement with manufacturer data.
• The MLR-GA software provides a powerful tool for optimizing complex chromatographic methods.