A validated liquid chromatographic method for the simultaneous determination of betamethasone valerate and clioquinol in creams using time programmed UV detection

Abstract

A simple and rapid liquid chromatographic method was developed and validated for the first time for the simultaneous determination of betamethasone valerate (BETA) and clioquinol (CLIO) in creams. Good chromatographic separation was achieved within less than 4 minutes using a Shim-Pack (150 mm × 4.6 mm i.d) CLC-cyanopropyl-bonded stationary phase. The mobile phase consisted of a mixture of methanol and 0.02 M phosphate buffer at a ratio of (55 : 45) v/v at pH 4.0 pumped at a flow rate of 1 mL min⁻¹ with UV detection at 240 nm for BETA and 280 nm for CLIO. The method showed good linearity over the concentration ranges of 2–30 and 15–150 μg mL⁻¹ with limits of detection of 0.46 and 2.01 μg mL⁻¹ and limits of quantification of 1.40 and 6.10 μg mL⁻¹ for BETA and CLIO, respectively. The suggested method was successfully applied in the simultaneous analysis of the studied drugs in their commercial creams with mean percentage recoveries of 94.99% ± 0.81 and 95.34% ± 0.60 for BETA and CLIO, respectively. Statistical evaluation of the data was performed according to ICH guidelines.