Simultaneous Quantification of DPPG, DEPC and Cholesterol in Propofol Liposome by HPLC-ELSD Using Alkaline Hydrolysis

A high-performance liquid chromatography method with evaporative light-scattering detection (ELSD) was performed for simultaneous determination of dipalmitoyl phosphatidylglycerol (DPPG), dierucoyl phosphatidylcholine (DEPC) and cholesterol in propofol liposome by the pretreatment of alkaline hydrolysis (temperature, concentration of KOH anhydrous ethanol solution and reaction time were 90°C, 1 mol · L-1 and 10 min, respectively). The analysis was carried out on an Agilent TC-C18 column (4.6 mm × 250 mm, 5 μm) with isocratic elution of methanol and 0.1% acetic acid aqueous solution (95:5, v/v) at a flow rate of 1.0 mL · min-1. The column temperature was 30°C. The drift tube temperature of the ELSD system was set at 30°C, and the pressure of carrier gas was 350 KPa. The regression equation revealed a good linear relationship (r = 0.9990-0.9993) during the test ranges. The RSD of stability and repeatability (n = 6) was found to be less than 1.96 and 1.46%, respectively. The average recoveries ranged from 97.90 to 101.00%. The proposed method was validated and showed good precision, stability, repeatability and recovery, which indicated that the method could be readily utilized as a quality evaluation method for the determination of DPPG, DEPC and cholesterol in propofol liposome.