Quantitative Analysis of Tetracycline by High Performance Liquid Chromatography on Polystyrene-Divinylbenzene Packing Materials

Abstract

Isocratic high-performance liquid chromatography on a poly(styrene-divinylbenzene) copolymer column allows the complete separation and resolution of tetracycline, 4-epitetracycline, anhydrotetracycline and 4-epianhydrotetracycline. A fermentation impurity, 2-acetyl-2-decarboxamidotetracycline is also resolved from tetracycline. The mobile phase combines tert.-butanol, water and phosphate buffer, tetrabutylammonium sulphate and sodium ethylenediaminetetraacetate at a pH of 9.0 for elution at a temperature of 60°. The method was used to analyse official standards and commercial samples.