MICROBIOLOGICAL ASSAY FOR QUANTITATIVE DETERMINATION OF IMIPENEM IN POWDER FOR INJECTION

This work describes the development and validation of a microbiological method using the cylinder-plate assay for quantitative determination of imipenem in powder for injection. The aim was to obtain a low-cost and suitable methodology that can be alternative to physicochemical techniques already described, contributing for the quality control of this antibiotic. Firstly, the analytical conditions were optimized, testing the microorganism, inoculum concentration and best range of sample and standard concentrations, in a way that provides the adequate measurement of the inhibition halos. Staphylococcu s epidermidis ATCC 12228 was selected as test microorganism, as well as 2.0 % of inoculum concentration. The validation protocol followed the official guidelines, and the parameters evaluated were linearity, precision (intermediate precision and repeatability) and accuracy. All standard curves ranging 0.5-2.0 µg mL-1 showed r values higher than 0.999, and ANOVA confirmed that were no deviation from linearity (p-value < 0.05). The method also proved to be precise with RSD (relative standard deviation) values ranging 0.28-0.64 for repeatability and 2.49 for intermediate precision. It was performed three days of experiments, being three assays of eight plates a day. The drug mean content was 101.05%. Accuracy was assessed by recovery test, with standard recovery percentage of 101.70-107.90% (mean recovery = 104.86%), which was considered satisfactory. Therefore, the proposed microbiological method was considered validated and suitable for application in quantitative determination of this drug, being useful for quality control routine.