Determination of saccharin in pharmaceuticals by high performance thin layer chromatography

A simple, accurate and selective high performance thin layer chromatographic method for the determination of saccharin in pharmaceuticals has been developed. The chromatography was performed on silica-gel 60F254 plates with ethyl acetate–carbon tetrachloride–acetic acid (3 + 4 + 0.5 v/v/v) as the mobile phase. The chromatographic zones corresponding to the saccharin spots were scanned in the reflectance/absorbance mode at l= 230 mm. For the standard curves, two series of saccharin sodium salt solutions were prepared: in methanol (solvent 1) and in ethyl acetate–acetic acid (9:1, v/v) mixture (solvent 2). A linear calibration relationship was observed within the concentration range from 300 – 1200 ng saccharin sodium salt per spot, correlation coefficients being 0.998 (solvent 1) and 0.995 (solvent 2). The relationship between the peak area and the amount of saccharin sodium salt was evaluated by linear regression analysis. The limits of detection and quantification of saccharin sodium salt were 35 ng and 110 ng per spot (solvent 1), respectively, and 45 ng and 150 ng per spot (solvent 2), respectively. Mean recovery values of 103.5 % (solvent 1) and 102.3 % (solvent 2), and RSD values of 4.42 % (solvent 1) and 2.53 % (solvent 2) were obtained. The proposed method was applied for saccharin determination in two pharmaceutical preparations, effervescent tablets and a carbomer-based gel.