Ibuprofen quality control by electrochromatography

The quality control of drugs is generally made by HPLC. This control could be made also by capillary electrochromatography (CEC). In this paper we report the analysis by CEC of ibuprofen, a well-known anti-inflammatory non steoridic drug and some of its impurities. The analysis were performed in a 100 mm I.D. fused silica capillary packed with RP-18 stationary phase. the mobile phase was a mixture of 100 mM formic acid solution (pH 2.5), water and acetonitrile (ACN). The ACN percentage in the mobile phase and the applied voltage were carefully studied to well resolve the drug from each impurity. The results obtained determining ibuprofen and related compounds by CEC showed the selectivity and efficiency of the method.