STABILITY-INDICATING REVERSED-PHASE HIGH-PERFORMANCE THIN-LAYER CHROMATOGRAPHY/DENSITOMETRY ESTIMATION OF LAFUTIDINE IN BULK AND TABLETS

Lafutidine (LTD) is a histamine H-2 receptor antagonist, with anti-ulcer and mucosal protective activity. A sensitive and selective stability-indicating reversed-phase high-performance thin-layer chromatography (RP-HPTLC)/densitometry method is suggested for the determination of LTD in the presence of its acid, alkaline, oxidative and dry heat degradation products. Stress testing of LTD was done according to the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) guidelines in order to validate the stability-indicating power of the analytical procedures. Stress testing demonstrated that LTD underwent acid, alkaline, oxidative and dry heat degradation; on the other hand, it showed stability towards neutral and photo degradation. Chromatography was performed on aluminum-backed silica gel 60 RP-18 F-254 S plates with methanol:water:triethylamine 8:2:0.5 (v/v) as the mobile phase. Densitometric scanning was performed at 276 nm. The system gave compact bands for LTD (Rf 0.671 +/- 0.02). Linear regression analysis data for the calibration plots showed a good linear relationship with r(2) > 0.99 in the working concentration range 500 to 3000 ng per band. The limits of detection and quantification were 23.51 ng and 71.26 ng, respectively. The developed method can routinely be used for analysis of LTD in bulk and pharmaceutical formulations.