HPLC determination of phenylpropanolamine in pharmaceutical OTC preparations

A convenient HPLC method to determine phenylpropanolamine (PPA) in addition to phenylephrine (PE) and chlorpheniramine (CPA) in commercially available over-the-counter (OTC) preparations has been developed. Sample solutions were prepared by dilution with water or methanol followed by filtration and direct injection into the HPLC system. The mobile phase was a mixture of methanol-acetonitrile-acetic acid (0.1 m)-triethylamine (20:20:60:0.6, v/v/v/v) containing sodium heptanesulfonate (0.5 mM) as an ion pair. The separation was achieved on a reversed-phase ODS column with detection wavelength set at 254 nm. The compounds showed good linearity in the range 2.5-1000 μM with detection limits ranged from 0.13 to 0.48 μM. PE, caffeine and CPA were well separated when present together with PPA. The method was applied to the determination of PPA in pharmaceutical preparations including hard and soft capsules.