HPLC method modification and validation for quantification of Ibuprofen

Abstract

Among the various NSAIDs used in the treatment of joint pain and osteoarthritis, ibuprofen, a propionic acid derivative, has been widely used for these purposes. In the present investigation, we modified and validated an HPLC method to obtain an accurate, sensitive and precise procedure to be exploited in the quantification of ibuprofen concentrations without interference from other ingredients present in the formulation. The HPLC method reported by Owen et al. (1987) was modified to fulfill our objectives, since the mobile phase used by the authors did not efficiently separate the drug peak from those of the formulation excipients. The modified mobile phase comprised 5 mM of disodium hydrogen phosphate adjusted to pH 3 with concentrated orthophosphoric acid, methanol and acetonitrile at ratios of 28:20:52, respectively. The method was found to be specific, precise, accurate and reproducible when carried out on intra-day and inter-day basis. The limit of detection and quantification were determined to be 0.03125 μg/mL and 0.0625 µg/mL, respectively. The data collectively showed that the current HPLC method is sufficiently sensitive to detect low concentration ranges of ibuprofen present in poor-transference topical delivery systems.