Stability indicating HPLC method for the simultaneous determination of moxifloxacin and prednisolone in pharmaceutical formulations

BACKGROUND: A simple, specific, and fast stability indicating reverse phase liquid chromatographic method was established for instantaneous determination of moxifloxacin and prednisolone in bulk drugs and pharmaceutical formulations. RESULTS: Optimum chromatographic separations among the moxifloxacin, prednisolone and stress-induced degradation products were achieved within 10 minutes by use of BDS Hypersil C8 column (250 X 4.6 mm, 5 μm) as stationary phase with mobile phase consisted of a mixture of phosphate buffer (18 mM) containing 0.1% (v/v) triethylamine, at pH 2.8 (adjusted with dilute phosphoric acid) and methanol (38:62 v/v) at a flow rate of 1.5 mL min(-1). Detection was performed at 254 nm using diode array detector. The method was validated in accordance with ICH guidelines. Response was a linear function of concentrations over the range of 20–80 μg mL(-1) for moxifloxacin (r2 ≥ 0.998) and 40–160 μg mL(-1) for prednisolone (r2 ≥ 0.998). The method was resulted in good separation of both the analytes and degradation products with acceptable tailing and resolution. The peak purity index for both the analytes after all types of stress conditions was ≥ 0.9999 indicated a complete separation of both the analyte peaks from degradation products. The method can therefore, be regarded as stabilityindicating. CONCLUSIONS: The developed method can be applied successfully for simultaneous determination of moxifloxacin and prednisolone in pharmaceutical formulations and their stability studies.