HPLC analytical method for simultaneous estimation of Mefloquine and Clarithromycin

Abstract

Abstract Clarithromycin is a semi-synthetic macrolide anti-biotic exhibiting good antimicrobial activity over erythromycin and mefloquine is an anti-malarial agent against falciparum malaria. Clarithromycin, a cytochrome P450 inhibitor, can reportedly cause reversal of mefloquine resistance in Plasmodium strains. Hence a simple, sensitive, selective and reproducible HPLC method was developed for their determination in dug solution and human RBC lysate. HPLC resolution of mefloquine and clarithromycin was achieved on a RP-18e Lichrosphere® column (250 X 4 mm, 5μm) at 253 0C utilizing mobile phase consisting of methanol: 0.05M monobasic sodium phosphate buffer (pH adjusted to 4.0 with ortho-phosphoric acid) (65:35 v/v); flow rate being 1.0 mL/min and injection volume-20 μL. Column effluent was monitored at 205 and 220nm (PDA detection) which afforded both mefloquine and clarithromycin at 10.5 and 12.10 min respectively. The standard calibration curve for mefloquine observed linearity (r2 = 0.9961; 0.9942) over the concentration range of 2–100 μg ml−1 with LOD (0.03 μg ml−1; 0.02 μg ml−1) and LOQ (0.05 μg ml−1; 0.04 μg ml−1) in both human RBC lysate and drug solution respectively. The standard calibration curve for clarithromycin observed linearity (r2 = 0.9991; 0.9973) over the concentration range of 2-800 μg ml−1 with the LOD (0.2 μg ml−1; 0.05 μg ml−1) and LOQ (1.0 μg ml−1; 0.01 μg ml−1) in both human RBC lysate and drug solution respectively. The present method was successfully applied for estimation of the said drugs in biological samples containing the same.