Simultaneous Determination of Ephedrine and 2-Imidazolines in Pharmaceutical Formulations by Reversed-Phase Hplc

A simple, rapid, and accurate method for the determination of naphazoline, oxymetazoline, xylometazoline, and ephedrine in rinological solutions using reversed-phase HPLC was developed. It involves the use of alumina coated with polybutadiene as the stationary phase, acetonitrile-aqueous 10 −3 M NaOH (10:90) as the initial mobile phase with a linear gradient from 10 to 80% acetonitrile in 25 min, and detection at 224 nm. The only sample preparation is its dilution with water. Linearity and precision of the method have been assessed. The assay results obtained for various formulations were in agreement with the declared amounts.