REVERSED-PHASE HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHIC STUDY OF THIMEROSAL STABILITY IN CUBAN RECOMBINANT HEPATITIS-B VACCINE

Non-degraded thimerosal was determined in the presence of its decompos ition products by directly assaying recombinant hepatitis B vaccine us ing a reversed-phase liquid chromatographic method, Methanol-water-ort hophosphoric acid (65:35:0.9, v/v/v) was used as the eluent. Salicylic acid was employed as an internal standard. The calibration graph was linear (r = 0.9995) up to 2.5 mu g of thimerosal. Interference from al uminium hydroxide was eliminated by centrifugation. Good stability of thimerosal in the hepatitis B vaccine was demonstrated, The results ob tained were in agreement with the recently proposed mechanism of degra dation.