Chromatographic determination of caffeine in pharmaceutical formulations using micellar mobile phases

An HPLC procedure is described for the determination of caffeine in pharmaceutical preparations. A Spherisorb octadecylsilane ODS-2 C-18 analytical column and spectrophotometric detection at 273 nm were used. The chromatographic behaviour of caffeine with different micellar eluents containing sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) is described. The determination of caffeine in pharmaceutical preparations was performed by use of a mobile phase containing 0.05 M sodium dodecylsulphate (SDS) and 1.5 % propanol at pH 7. At a 6.0 mu g mL(-1) concentration level the peak area and peak height repeatability were 2.6 and 2.4 %, respectively. The application of the proposed method to the analysis of five pharmaceutical formulations, using peak heights as the dependent variable, gave recoveries between 85 and 104 % of the values declared by the manufacturers. The proposed procedure for the determination of caffeine is rapid (15 min per sample), reliable and free from interferences.