Development and validation of a reversed-phase HPLC method for simultaneous estimation of ambroxol hydrochloride and azithromycin in tablet dosage form

A simple, precise and accurate reversed-phase liquid chromatographic method has been developed for the simultaneous estimation of ambroxol hydrochloride and azithromycin in tablet formulations. The chromatographic separation was achieved on a Xterra RP18 (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) analytical column. A Mixture of acetonitrile–dipotassium phosphate (30 mM) (50:50, v/v) (pH 9.0) was used as the mobile phase, at a flow rate of 1.7 ml/min and detector wavelength at 215 nm. The retention time of ambroxol and azithromycin was found to be 5.0 and 11.5 min, respectively. The validation of the proposed method was carried out for specificity, linearity, accuracy, precision, limit of detection, limit of quantitation and robustness. The linear dynamic ranges were from 30–180 to 250–1500 μg/ml for ambroxol hydrochloride and azithromycin, respectively. The percentage recovery obtained for ambroxol hydrochloride and azithromycin were 99.40 and 99.90%, respectively. Limit of detection and quantification for azithromycin were 0.8 and 2.3 μg/ml, for ambroxol hydrochloride 0.004 and 0.01 μg/ml, respectively. The developed method can be used for routine quality control analysis of titled drugs in combination in tablet formulation.