Development and Validation of Rapid, Timesaving, and Cost-effective UHPLC Method for Simultaneous Quantification of Cinnarizine, its Five Specified Impurities, Two Degradation Products and Two Antioxidants

Abstract This article explains the developed and validated rapid, timesaving, and cost-effective UHPLC method for simultaneous quantification of cinnarizine, its five specified impurities (Impurity-A to E), two degradation products (cinnamyl piperazine and benzhydrol), and two antioxidants (methylparaben and propylparaben). Furthermore, when coupled with a mass spectrometer, the proposed method provides additional advantages for confirmation of results and correct identification based on molecular weight. All analytes were eluted within 15 minutes on an ACQUITY, UPLC, BEH C18 (150 mm x 2.1 mm, 1.7 µm) column at 40.0°C by using two mobile phases containing different compositions of 10 mM ammonium acetate, acetonitrile, and acetic acid in gradient elution mode. The linearity curves of cinnarizine, its impurities, and degradation products showed good results in a correlation coefficient of 0.999 with a lower detection limit (0.1125 μg/ mL) and quantification limit (0.1875 μg/mL) at 230 nm. A forced degradation study on spiked and unspiked solutions proved their specificity with improvements and their significance. This proposed method involves a lower flow rate (0.35 mL/min.) with a shorter run time, which provides faster analysis, reduces wastage, reduces the cost, and specifies the greener advantages. The outcome of the validation as per ICH guidelines proved that the proposed UHPLC method is accurate, precise, and timesaving for simultaneous quantification of all analytes in active pharmaceutical ingredient, tablets, capsules, and oral suspension of cinnarizine. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT