Evaluation of some quality parameters of five brands of Cetirizine hydrochloride tablets marketed in Abuja, Nigeria.

Cetirizine Hydrochloride is a non-drowsy second-generation antihistamine and a derivative of piperazine with a half-life of eleven hours. It is used to relieve allergy symptoms such as runny nose, sneezing, rhinitis, urticaria and watery eyes. It is a key adjuvant therapy in management of some covid-19 related symptoms. To assess the quality of five brands of Cetirizine hydrochloride 10mg tablets marketed in Abuja. The weight variation, friability, hardness, disintegration, dissolution tests and HPLC assay were evaluated using USP methods. The hardness and friability of the samples ranged from 2.03kgF to 7.54KgF and 0.00 to 0.90% respectively. The disintegration time were within 5mins, for dissolution, 80.0 to 103.3% of the API in the samples were released within 30mins, the assay ranged from 93.1 to 101.6%. The cetirizine tablets conformed with quality standards.