Impurity-profiling UPLC methods for quantitative analysis of some antiemetics formulated with pyridoxine

Cyclizine hydrochloride (CYC) and meclozine hydrochloride (MEC) are antihistaminic drugs generally co-formulated with pyridoxine hydrochloride (PYR) to treat nausea and vomiting in pregnancy. Several analytical techniques have been applied for the determination of CYC or MEC with PYR, but determination of CYC impurity; benzhydrol (BEH) or MEC impurity; or 4-chlorobenzophenone (BEP) has not been paid attention to. Therefore, micellar UPLC method is introduced for analysis of ternary mixtures containing PYR together with both CYC and BEH (mixture I) or MEC and BEP (mixture II). Chromatographic separation was achieved using a Hypersil gold C₈ column (50 × 2.1 mm, 1.9 μm) using 0.01 M sodium dodecyl sulfate modified to pH 3.5 using phosphoric acid:acetonitrile (45:55 by volume) for mixture I and 0.1% sodium dodecyl sulfate, 0.1% sodium bicarbonate adjusted to pH 2.6 by phosphoric acid:acetonitrile (47:53 by volume) for mixture II as mobile phases. The separated peaks were detected at 230 and 245 nm for mixtures I and II, respectively. The adopted methods were validated in conformance with the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) recommendations and were properly applied in commercial pharmaceutical formulation analysis. Comprehensive ecological comparison was achieved, confirming a higher ecological value of the presented methods compared to the earlier reported methods.