Simultaneous determination of the binary mixture of nifedipine and mefruside using derivate spectroscopy, capillary gas-liquid chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography.

Accurate, precise first-derivative ultraviolet spectrophotometric, gas-liquid and high performance liquid chromatographic methods for the determination of nifedipine and mefruside in tablet dosage form were described. The first-derivative method depends on measurements of the derivative amplitudes by peak-to-base and zero-crossing techniques, at 390 and 282 nm, for the determination of nifedipine and mefruside, respectively. Calibration graphs were linear (r = 0.9999) ranging from 8-40 and 20-60 micrograms ml-1 for nifedipine and mefruside, respectively, in presence of one another. The gas-liquid chromatographic method (GLC) was based on using cross-linked methylsilicone gum capillary column with flame ionization detector for the determination of nifedipine and mefruside in the binary mixture. The high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method was based on using a reverse-phase column with a mobile phase of methanol-water (55-45, pH = 4.5) with UV detection at 260 nm. The three methods showed good linearity, precision and reproducibility. The proposed methods were successfully applied to the determination of both drugs in pharmaceutical tablets.