Simple TLC-spectrodensitometric method for studying lipophilicity and quantitative analysis of hypoglycemic drugs in...

A selective and simple salting-out-assisted thin-layer chromatographic methodology was developed for the simultaneous determination of two oral hypoglycemic drugs, dapagliflozin (DAPA) and metformin (MET) in their pure forms, tablets and spiked human plasma samples. Silica gel 60 F₂₅₄ plates were used in the separation of the two drugs using a mobile phase consisting of 0.5 m (NH₄ )₂ SO₄ and methanol (3:7, v/v). The plates were scanned in the reflectance mode at λ_max  = 237 nm. The obtained retardation factor (R_f ) values for DAPA and MET were 0.77 ± 0.02 and 0.25 ± 0.02, respectively. The thin-layer chromatography method was validated according to International Conference on Harmonization guidelines. The peak areas were linearly increased with the increases in concentrations of 45-1,000 and 50-1,500 ng/band for DAPA and MET, respectively. Moreover, the method was applied to estimate the molecular lipophilicity parameters of DAPA and MET via retention data. The suggested method was efficiently utilized for the analysis of DAPA and MET in pharmaceutical tablets and plasma samples with recoveries 98.4-100.4 and RSDs in the ranges of 1.4-2.6 and 2.2-3.0% for DAPA and MET, respectively.