Paracetamol (PAR) and methocarbamol (MET) are co-formulated together in Methorelax® tablets which are widely used as a muscle relaxant and in the treatment of muscle-skeletal pain. On the other hand, 4-aminophenol (4-AP) and guaifenesine (GU) have been reported to be related substances and degradation products of PAR and MET, respectively. The target of this work was to develop and validate a simple, sensitive and selective stability indicating RP-HPLC method for the determination of PAR, MET, 4-AP and GU in their bulk powders and laboratory prepared mixtures. Chromatographic separation was achieved within 10 minutes with the required asymmetry, accuracy and precision on ODS column using 0.05 M KH₂PO₄ buffer : acetonitrile (72.5 : 27.5, v/v, pH = 6) as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 1 mL min⁻¹ with UV detection at 225 nm. The developed method has been validated as per ICH guidelines and the calibration plots were linear over the concentration ranges of 3–20, 4–25, 0.6–8 and 0.6–8 μg mL⁻¹ for PAR, MET, 4-AP and GU, respectively. The method has been successfully applied in the analysis of Methorelax® tablets and good results were obtained. Moreover, its results have been compared to a previously reported RP-HPLC method and no significant difference was found between the two methods.

Flutamide is a potential antineoplastic drug classified as an anti-androgen. It is a therapy for men with advanced prostate cancer, administered orally after which it undergoes extensively first pass metabolism in the liver with the production of several metabolites. These metabolites are predominantly excreted in urine. One of the important metabolites in plasma is 4-nitro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenylamine (Flu-1), while the main metabolite in urine is 2-amino-5-nitro-4-(trifluoromethyl)phenol (Flu-3). In this work the two metabolites, Flu-1 and Flu-3, have been synthesized, and then structural confirmation has been carried out by HNMR analysis. Efforts were exerted to develop chromatographic methods for resolving Flutamide and its metabolites with the use of acceptable solvents without affecting the efficiency of the methods. The drug along with its metabolites were quantitatively analyzed in pure form, human urine, and plasma samples using two chromatographic methods, HPTLC and HPLC–DAD methods. FDA guidelines for bio-analytical method validation were followed and USP recommendations were used for analytical method validation. Interference from excipients has been tested by application of the methods to pharmaceutical tablets. No significant difference was found between the proposed methods and the official one when they were statistically compared at p value of 0.05%.

Recently, experimental design has beaten the traditional optimization approach (one variable at a time) by providing better quality for chromatographic separation using minimal effort and resources. Benzophenone (BZP) and [1-(diphenylmethyl)piperazine] (DPP) were reported to be the most toxic impurities for dimenhydrinate (DMH) and cinnarizine (CIN), respectively. Additionally, there is no reported HPLC method for the simultaneous determination of DMH, CIN and their toxic impurities. A custom experimental design was adopted to estimate the optimum conditions that achieved the most acceptable resolution with adequate peak symmetry within the shortest run time. Desirability function was used to define the optimum chromatographic conditions and the optimum separation was achieved using XBridge® HPLC RP-C18 (4.6 × 250 mm, 5 μm), acetonitrile: 0.1% sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS) in water (90 : 10, v/v) as a mobile phase at flow rate 2 mL min⁻¹ and UV detection at 215 nm. Method validation was carried out according to ICH guidelines and linearity was achieved in the ranges of 2–25, 1–25, 1–12.5, and 1–12.5 μg mL⁻¹ for DMH, CIN, BZP and DPP, respectively. By application of the proposed method to the market dosage form, no interference from excipients was observed. Moreover, the greenness of the method was evaluated using the National Environmental Method Index (NEMI), Analytical Eco-Scale and Green Analytical Procedure Index (GAPI) metrics and the results revealed the green environmental impact of the developed method.