Quantitation of transdermal tadalafil in human skin by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography.

A reliable and sensitive HPLC method was developed for the quantitation of tadalafil transdermal permeation through human skin. An RP column with UV detection at 290 nm was used for chromatographic separation at ambient temperature. The mobile phase was acetonitrile-water containing 20 mM pH 7 phosphate buffer (35/65, v/v) with a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The LOQ achieved was 1 ng/mL, and the calibration curve showed good linearity over the concentration range of 5-2000 ng/mL for tadalafil, with a determination coefficient (R2) of 0.998. The RSD values of intraday and interday analyses were all within 7%. Parameters of validation proved the precision of the method; this validated method was applied for the determination of tadalafil in transdermal permeation and drug deposition in human skin studies.