Liquid chromatographic method for identity, assay, and content uniformity of five tricyclic drugs

A liquid chromatographic (LC) procedure has been developed for the assay, content uniformity, and identification of single active ingredient solid and liquid formulations of amitriptyline, chlorpromazine, imipramine, thioridazine, and trifluoperazine. The drugs are extracted from their formulations with methanol or dilute hydrochloric acid, and identified by comparison of retention times with those of known standards; drugs are quantitated against these standards with dl-norephedrine hydrochloride as the internal standard. The precision of replicate injections is better than 2.5% for peak area and better than 1% for peak height. The precision of triplicate determinations of tablet composites is better than 2.2%.