Development and validation of a method for determination of caffeine in diuretic tablets and capsules by high-performance thin-layer chromatography on silica gel plates with a concentration zone using manual spotting and ultraviolet absorption densitometry.

A new quantitative method using silica gel high-performance thin-layer chromatography plates with channels and a concentration zone, manual application of standards and samples, development with methanol-ethyl acetate (15 + 85) mobile phase, and ultraviolet absorption densitometry is reported for the determination of caffeine in diuretic pharmaceutical preparations. Tablet and capsule products containing potassium salicylate, acetaminophen, and salicylamide as active ingredients were analyzed to test the applicability of the new method, and precision, accuracy, linearity, limits of detection and quantitation, and selectivity were validated. The milligrams of caffeine in each tablet ranged from 48.0 to 51.0, and the milligrams in each capsule from 37.9 to 40.3. Within-day precision was 1.48 and 1.78% (n=6), and interday precision 0.723 and 1.26% (n=5) for analysis of 2 tablets and 2 capsules, respectively. Accuracy validation of the tablet and capsule results produced errors of 1.0 and 1.9% for spiked blank analyses and 2.6 and 3.5% for standard addition analyses, respectively. A comparative study using a caffeine standard solution and a multicomponent analgesic tablet solution containing caffeine, acetaminophen, and acetylsalicylic acid showed that manual application on the concentration zone, instrumental application on the concentration zone, and instrumental application on the silica gel gave quite similar results in terms of number of theoretical plates, resolution, limit of detection, and linearity.