DEVELOPMENT OF HPTLC METHOD FOR THE ESTIMATION OF ANTIDEPRESSANT DRUGS MELITRACEN AND FLUPENTIXOL IN THEIR COMBINED DOSAGE FORM

A sensitive, selective, and precise high-performance thin-layer chromatographic method has been developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of melitracen hydrochloride and flupentixol dihydrochloride both as a bulk drug and in formulation. The method employed HPTLC aluminium plates pre-coated with silica gel 60F-254 as the stationary phase while the solvent system was methanol: toluene: ammonia (8: 2: 0.3, v/v/v). The Rf values of melitracen hydrochloride and flupentixol dihydrochloride were observed to be 0.79 ± 0.08 and 0.88 ± 0.05, respectively. The densitometric analysis was carried out in absorbance mode at 270 nm. The linear regression analysis data for the calibration plots showed a good linear relationship for melitracen hydrochloride and flupentixol dihydrochloride over a concentration range of 1000–8000 ng/spot and 50–400 ng/spot, respectively. The method was validated for precision, robustness, and recovery. The limit of detection and limit of quantification for melitracen hydroc...