ION-PAIR HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHIC ASSAY-METHOD FOR THEASSESSMENT OF CLARITHROMYCIN STABILITY IN AQUEOUS-SOLUTION AND IN GASTRIC-JUICE

A simple and selective ion-pair HPLC method has been developed for the analysis of clarithromycin in aqueous solutions and in gastric juice. A Hypersil ODS 5-mu m (150 x 4.6 mm I.D.) column was used with a mobi le phase consisting of acetonitrile-aqueous 0.05 M phosphate buffer (p H 4.6) containing 5 mM 1-octanesulphonic acid (50:50, v/v). The column temperature was 50 degrees C and detection was by UV absorption (210 nm). The limits of detection of 50-mu l samples were 0.4 mu g/ml (aque ous) and 0.78 mu g/ml (0.5 ml gastric juice) or better. The assay was linear in the range of 1.56 to 100 pg/ml with r(2) values greater than 0.99. The recovery from the gastric juice samples was 98.5 +/- 2.9%. The method was applied successfully to determine the stability of clar ithromycin in 0.01 M HCl and gastric juice.