ICP-OES elemental impurities study on different pharmaceutical dosage forms of Ibuprofen using microwave-assisted digestion procedure

Fast and simple closed-vessel microwave-assisted digestion procedure was developed for decomposition of three pharmaceutical dosage forms of ibuprofen such as tablets, suspension and gel, prior to elemental impurity analysis by one robust and precise ICP-OES method. Samples were digested by four-step microwave program consisting of a 10 min temperature gradient to 180°C, maintained at 180°C for 10 min, followed by 5 min ramping time to 210°C with holding time of 10 min on 210°C. Subsequently, ICP-OES method was developed and validated for simultaneous determination of selected elemental impurities. Results of recovery studies range between 77% and 105% for each element in all analyzed formulations. Correlation coefficients of the regression equations were higher than 0.999 for all analyzed elements. Validation results reveal that the proposed method is specific, accurate, and precise and could be applied for simultaneous quantitative analysis of multi element solutions in different pharmaceutical dosage forms of ibuprofen.