A rapid high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the simultaneous quantitation of aspirin, salicylic acid, and caffeine in effervescent tablets.

A rapid reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic procedure is developed and validated for the simultaneous quantitation of aspirin, salicylic acid, and caffeine extracted from an effervescent tablet. The method uses a Hypersil C18 column (5 micro m, 15 cm x 4.6 mm) for an isocratic elution in a water-methanol-acetic acid mobile phase at a wavelength of 275 nm. The tablets' buffering effects and acid neutralizing capacity require an extraction solvent of methanol-formic acid. The range of linearity for aspirin is 0.5-1.25 mg/mL, caffeine 0.065-0.195 mg/mL, and salicylic acid 0.4-6.0% of aspirin. The overall recovery is 100.2%, 100.7%, and 99.2% for aspirin, caffeine, and salicylic acid, respectively. Under the conditions of the method, aspirin, caffeine, and salicylic acid are adequately resolved with proper peak symmetry in less than 7 min.