HPLC DETERMINATION OF CISATRACURIUM BESYLATE AND PROPOFOL MIXTURES WITH LC-MS IDENTIFICATION OF DEGRADATION PRODUCTS

A stability-indicating HPLC method was developed to simultaneously det ermine cisatracurium besylate and propofol in mixtures. The effects of organic modifier, ionic strength and the pH of the mobile phase on re solution and retention were investigated. A baseline separation was ac hieved on an octadecylsilane column with an isocratic mobile phase of acetonitrile-ammonium formate (pH 5.2; 0.3 M) (50:50, v/v). Cisatracur ium and propofol were confirmed by both retention time and mass-to-cha rge ratio using LC-MS. The degradation products of cisatracurium were identified by ESI positive-ion detection as Hofmann elimination and es ter hydrolysis products of cisatracurium. There were no propofol degra dation products observed. The quantitation of the two drugs was accomp lished using UV detection at 280 nm. This method showed linearity for cisatracurium besylate and propofol in the 8-128 and 37-592 mu g ml(-1 ) ranges, respectively. Accuracy and precision were in the 0.4-1.4 and 0.4-2.9% ranges respectively, for both analytes. Published by Elsevie r Science B.V. All rights reserved.