Development and validation of a reversed-phase HPLC method for simultaneous estimation of clotrimazole and beclomethasone dipropionate in lotion and cream dosage form

Background: The combination of Clotrimazole and Beclomethasone dipropionate is used as anti-fungal and anti-inflammatory for external use in the form of cream and lotion. Aim: A simple, specific, economic, precise, and accurate reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatographic method development for the simultaneous estimation of clotrimazole (CT) and beclomethasone dipropionate (BD) in lotion and cream formulations. Materials and Methods: The chromatographic separation was achieved on a Kromasil C18 (150 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) analytical column. A mixture of acetonitrile-water (70:30, v/v) was used as the mobile phase, at a flow rate of 1 ml/min and detector wavelength at 254 nm. The validation of the proposed method was carried out for specificity, linearity, accuracy, precision, limit of detection, limit of quantitation, and system suitability test as per ICH guideline. Results: The retention time of CT and BD was found to be 5.4 and 4 min, respectively. The linear dynamic ranges were from 2-16 μg/ml and 80-640 μg/ml for BD and CT, respectively. Limit of detection and quantification for BD were 0.039 and 0.12 μg/ml, for CT 1.24 and 3.77 μg/ml, respectively. Conclusions: The developed method was validated and found to be simple, specific, accurate and precise and can be used for routine quality control analysis of titled drugs in combination in lotion and cream formulation.