Abstract
Recently, experimental design has beaten the traditional optimization approach (one variable at a time) by providing better quality for chromatographic separation using minimal effort and resources. Benzophenone (BZP) and [1-(diphenylmethyl)piperazine] (DPP) were reported to be the most toxic impurities for dimenhydrinate (DMH) and cinnarizine (CIN), respectively. Additionally, there is no reported HPLC method for the simultaneous determination of DMH, CIN and their toxic impurities. A custom experimental design was adopted to estimate the optimum conditions that achieved the most acceptable resolution with adequate peak symmetry within the shortest run time. Desirability function was used to define the optimum chromatographic conditions and the optimum separation was achieved using XBridge® HPLC RP-C18 (4.6 × 250 mm, 5 μm), acetonitrile: 0.1% sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS) in water (90 : 10, v/v) as a mobile phase at flow rate 2 mL min-1 and UV detection at 215 nm. Method validation was carried out according to ICH guidelines and linearity was achieved in the ranges of 2-25, 1-25, 1-12.5, and 1-12.5 μg mL-1 for DMH, CIN, BZP and DPP, respectively. By application of the proposed method to the market dosage form, no interference from excipients was observed. Moreover, the greenness of the method was evaluated using the National Environmental Method Index (NEMI), Analytical Eco-Scale and Green Analytical Procedure Index (GAPI) metrics and the results revealed the green environmental impact of the developed method.