SIMULTANEOUS ESTIAMATION OF DROTAVERINE HCl AND NIMESULIDE IN PHARMACEUTICALS BY HIGH PERFORMANCE THIN LAYER CHROMATOGRAPHIC METHOD

A simple, rapid, precise and accurate high-performance thin-layer chromatographic (HPTLC) method was developed and validated for simultaneous determination of Drotaverine hydrochloride (DRO) and Nimesulide (NIM) in pharmaceutical preparations. Separation was achieved on a Merck HPTLC plates (0.2 mm thickness) precoated with 60 F254 silica gel on aluminum sheet as the stationary phase using cyclohexane: methanol: ethyl acetate (5:2.:3v/v/v), as the mobile phase. Densitometric quantification was performed at l = 295 nm by reflectance scanning. The RF values of DRO and NIM were obtained 0.41 and 0.62 respectively. The linearity of proposed method was investigated in the range of 0.1 to 0.6 mg/spot and 0.2 to 0.7 mg/spot for DRO and NIM respectively.. The percentage recoveries for DRO and NIM were 99.91 % and 100.19 % by area and 99.63 % and 99.96 % by height, respectively. The developed method was suitably validated for precision, accuracy, specificity and ruggedness.