Simultaneous High-Performance Liquid Chromatographic Assay of Acetaminophen, Acetylsalicylic Acid, Caffeine, and D-Propoxyphene Hydrochloride

Abstract A reversed phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for simultaneous measurement of acetaminophen (I), acetylsalicylic acid (II), caffeine (III) and d-propoxyphene (IV), using phenacetin (V) as an internal standard was developed. Using a 6.5 μ C-8 reversed phase column (RPP) with a mobile phase consisting of 0.01M sodium acetate solution: methanol (85:15%) at pH 4.1 enabled the Chromatographic separation of the four components in about 12 min. Quantitation was achieved by measuring the peak height ratio of each component relative to the internal standard. the validity of the developed method was tested by analyzing laboratory-prepared mixtures containing the four components in various proportions. Assay precision and sensitivity have been established for each component. the developed method proved to be stability-indicating as it can be applied to monitor salicylic acid as a degradation product in acetylsalicylic acid samples.