Simultaneous determination of lovastatin and niacin in tablet by first and third derivative spectrophotometry and H-point standard addition methods

Most cardiovascular diseases need to be treated by more than a simple drug and the use of combination products diminishes noncompliance. Advicor(®) as a combination product of a vitamin and a fat lowering agent has no monograph in official pharmacopeias for its quality control purposes. In this study, first and third derivative signals for NA and LV quantitation at the two pairs of wavelengths, 261 and 273 nm; 245 and 249 nm were monitored with the addition of standard solutions of NA or LV, respectively. The limits of detection were 0.03 and 0.32 mg/L for LV and NA, respectively. The limits of quantitation were 0.09 and 0.78 mg/L for LV and NA, respectively. RSD% for both interday and intraday precision was lower than 2.6 and 2.7% for LV and NA, respectively. Selectivity of the method was assessed for both degradation products produced in stress conditions and common excipients that may present in the pharmaceutical dosage forms. The recommended procedure was successfully applied to real samples.

Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) of permethrin residues from cucumber using a silica-bonded phase-coated stainless steel fibre

Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) is a rapid, economic and solvent-free sample preparation method for the isolation of an analyte from its matrix. The technique uses a few centimetres of some adsorptive materials such as activated charcoal, polydimethylsiloxane or octadecyl silane coated onto fused silica optical fibres or, more recently, stainless steel fibres mounted into a microsyringe. The proposed method allows the extraction of permethrin from cucumber matrix into the coating, avoiding sample handling and saving evaporation of solvents and concentration steps. Adsorbed permethrin was desorbed in the split/splitless injection port of the gas chromatograph. The time required for each run was about 1.5 h, which gave a preconcentration of several orders of magnitude. The method could separate and quantify cis- and trans-isomers of permethrin. The calibration curve showed linearity in the range 1-9 micrograms ml-1, with detection limits of 0.03 and 0.05 microgram ml-1 for the cis- and trans-isomers of permethrin, respectively. The method had a recovery rate of about 70% and a relative standard deviation of less than 13%. Results suggest that this procedure provides a rapid and sensitive alternative method to those currently available.