A multivariate approach for the simultaneous determination of losartan potassium and hydrochlorothiazide in a combined pharmaceutical tablet formulation.

A convenient new method for the simultaneous determination of losartan potassium and hydrochlorothiazide, with minimum sample pretreatment, is described. The procedure, based on the multivariate analysis of spectral data in the 220-274 nm region by the partial least squares algorithm, is linear in the concentration range 1.06-5.70 mg L(-1) for hydrochlorothiazide and 4.0-22.2 mg L(-1) for losartan. It is simple, rapid and robust, allowing accurate and precise results, with drug recovery rates of 99.3 and 100.4% and relative standard deviations of 1.7 and 1.0% obtained for hydrochlorothiazide and losartan, respectively. The method was applied to the simultaneous determination of both analytes in tablets, and it provided good results which were in statistical agreement with those provided by independent HPLC analyses of the samples. The method has also been successfully applied for the construction of drug dissolution profiles of a commercial pharmaceutical preparation containing both analytes.