A validated stability-indicating high performance liquid chromatographic method for moxifloxacin hydrochloride and ketorolac tromethamine eye drops and its application in pH dependent degradation kinetics

Background and Aim: A fixed dose combination of moxifloxacin hydrochloride and ketorolac tromethamine is used in ratio of 1:1 as eye drops for the treatment of the reduction of post operative inflammatory conditions of the eye. A simple, precise, and accurate High Performance Liquid Chromatographic (HPLC) method was developed and validated for determination of moxifloxacin hydrochloride and ketorolac tromethamine in eye drops. Materials and Methods: Isocratic HPLC separation was achieved on a ACE C 18 column (C 18 (5 μm, 150 mm×4.6 mm, i.d.)) using the mobile phase 10 mM potassium di-hydrogen phosphate buffer pH 4.6-Acetonitrile (75:25 v/v) at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The detection was performed at 307 nm. Drugs were subjected to acid, alkali and neutral hydrolysis, oxidation and photo degradation. Moreover, the proposed HPLC method was utilized to investigate the pH dependent degradation kinetics of moxifloxacin hydrochloride and ketorolac tromethamine in buffer solutions at different pH values like 2.0, 6.8 and 9.0. Results and Conclusion: The retention time (t R ) of moxifloxacin hydrochloride and ketorolac tromethamine were 3.81±0.01 and 8.82±0.02 min, respectively. The method was linear in the concentration range of 2-20 μ/mL each for moxifloxacin hydrochloride and ketorolac tromethamine with a correlation coefficient of 0.9996 and 0.9999, respectively. The method was validated for linearity, precision, accuracy, robustness, specificity, limit of detection and limit of quantitation. The drugs could be effectively separated from different degradation products and hence the method can be used for stability analysis. Different kinetics parameters like apparent first-order rate constant, half-life and t 90 (time for 90% potency left) were calculated.