A Validated Stability-Indicating UHPLC Method for Determination of Naproxen and Its Related Compounds in Bulk Drug Samples

A simple, rapid, precise, accurate, rugged and robust stability-indicating ultra-fast high performance liquid chromatographic (UHPLC) method has been developed for the estimation of related compounds (imp-A, imp-B, imp-C, imp-D and imp-E) in Naproxen and also the assay of Naproxen from bulk drug samples. The stability indicating capability of the method was proven by subjecting the samples to stress conditions such as acid, base, oxidation, photolysis and thermal degradation. The efficient chromatographic separation was achieved using mobile phase solution A prepared as buffer solution 10 mM monobasic potassium phosphate pH 4.0 ± 0.05 adjusted with diluted ortho phosphoric acid solution and solution B acetonitrile with linear gradient elution on poroshell 120 EC-C18 shot column (50 mm × 4.6 mm, 2.7 μm) and UV detection at 235 nm at a flow rate 1.0 mL/min, column oven temperature was set to 25 ̊C. The above are all known impurities and degradation impurities are well resolved with Naproxen peak and these are eluted within a 10 min runtime of HPLC. The photo diode array detector was used for peak homogeneity testing during stress study experiments and the overall mass balance was found to be 99.2% to 100.2% in all stress conditions. The linear calibration range was found to be 0.05 μg/mL to 0.75 μg/mL for related compounds and 50 μg/mL to 150 μg/mL for Naproxen and the accuracy of the method was found to be 91.5% to 98.5% recovery for the related substance method and 95.4% to 97.4% recovery for the assay method. The Naproxen and related compounds were found to be stable up to 48 hours and the method validation data show excellent results for precision, linearity, specificity, limit of detection, limit of quantitation and robustness. The present method can be successfully used for routine QC and stability studies and it will help to reduce the analysis cost, time and effluent load compared to conventional HPLC methods.