HPLC Method for Determination of Paracetamol in Pharmaceutical Formulations and Environmental Water Samples

A simple, precise, rapid, and accurate reversed – phase high performance liquid chromatography method has been developed for the determination of paracetamol in pure from, pharmaceutical formulations and environmental water samples. Chromatography was carried out on supelco L1 (C18) reversedphase column (25cm × 4.6mm), 5 microns, using a mixture of acetonitril : buffer pH3.0 (40: 60v/v) as a mobile phase at a flow rate of 1.5 ml.min -1 . Detection was performed at 243nm at ambient temperature. The retention time was found 2.2 minutes. The calibration curve was linear (r= 0.999) over a concentration range from 10 to 100 μg/ml. Limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantitation (LOQ) were found 3ng/ml and 9 ng/ml respectively. The method was validated for its linearity, precision and accuracy. The proposed method was successfully applied for the determination of paracetamol in pure form, pharmaceutical formulations and in environmental water samples. KEYWORD: HPLC, Paracetamol, Pharmaceutical Formulations, Environmental Water Samples.