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 hydrochloride and flupentixol dihydrochloride were found to be 225.30 and 682.73 ng/spot, 4.66 and 14.12 ng/spot, respectively. Statistical analysis showed that the method is repeatable, selective, and precise.