TLC chromatographic-densitometric assay of ibuprofen and its impurities

A simple and sensitive thin-layer chromatographic (TLC)-densitometric method for the quantitative estimation of S(+)-2-[4-isobutylphenyl]propionic acid (ibuprofen) and its impurities in pharmaceutical preparations has been developed. The chromatographic separation was carried out on silica gel 60 F(254) TLC plates using toluene-ethyl acetate-glacial acetic acid (17:13: 1, v/v/v) as the mobile phase. Detection was carried out densitometrically with a UV detector. The developed method has detection and quantitation limits ranging from 0.13 μg per spot to 0.72 μg per spot. For individual constituents the recovery ranged from 96.8% to 99.0%. In addition, the stability of ibuprofen solutions was investigated, including the effect of pH, temperature, and incubation time. The method is rapid, simple, and suitable for routine quality-control analysis of pharmaceuticals containing ibuprofen.