Application of high-performance liquid chromatography hyphenated techniques for identification of degradation products of cefpodoxime proxetil.

Application of the HPLC hyphenated techniques of LC-MS, LC-NMR and solvent-elimination LC-IR was demonstrated by the identification of the degradation products of a third generation cephalosporin antibiotic, cefpodoxime proxetil, in solid state, drug formulation and solution. Molecular weight and fragment information were obtained by LC-MS, and detailed structural information was confirmed by LC-NMR. Information on the carboxyl functional group obtained by solvent-elimination LC-IR was useful for confirmation of the ester hydrolysis. The degradation products were successfully identified without complicated isolation or purification processes.