HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHIC DETERMINATION OF ATROPINE ANDATROPINE-LIKE ALKALOIDS IN PHARMACEUTICAL PREPARATIONS WITH INDIRECT CONDUCTOMETRIC DETECTION

An HPLC method using indirect conductometric detection is proposed for the determination of atropine and atropine-like alkaloids in pharmace utical preparations. It involves the use of an Ultrasphere 5 mu m CN a nalytical column (250 mmX4.6 mm) and a mobile phase of water-acetonitr ile-tetrahydrofuran (67:30:3, v/v/v), containing 1 mM perchloric acid for all alkaloids except hyoscine butylbromide, where in the mobile ph ase the ratio of water to acetonitrile was 47:50. Derivatisation of th e drugs is not required. The detector responses for all the alkaloids are similar. The calibration graphs exhibited wide linear concentratio n range of 0-500 mu g ml(-1) for a sample size of 20 mu l for all the analytes. The method has been applied to determine the drugs in a numb er of pharmaceutical preparations.