Separation and Analysis of Psychopharmacologic Drugs by High Efficiency Liquid Chromatography

Abstract

Modern high efficiency liquid chromatography has been shown to be an important technique for the analysis of several classes of tranquilizer drugs. Methods are described for the separation and determination of various phenothiazines, benzodiazepines, and rauwolfia alkaloids. These compounds constitute the more important types of major and minor tranquilizers. The analysis of these compounds was achieved through the use of adsorption columns of silica gel and also of cation exchange columns using bonded pellicular ion exchange packings. The intact compounds, and some of their major degradation products, were separated and determined in standard mixtures, as well as selected pharmaceutical dosage forms. The work was done using a Perkin-Elmer Model 1220 liquid chromatograph using adsorption and ion-exchange columns from Perkin-Elmer Corporation.