Simultaneous determination of formic acid and formaldehyde in pharmaceutical excipients using headspace GC/MS

Formic acid and its esters, as well as formaldehyde, are trace impurities that are often present in pharmaceutical excipients. These trace impurities can potentially react with amino and/or hydroxyl groups in drugs to form significant levels of degradants. To select the appropriate excipients for a stable formulation, a gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) method was developed and validated for the rapid screening of trace amounts of residual formic acid, its esters and formaldehyde in pharmaceutical excipients. Samples were dissolved or dispersed in acidified ethanol to convert formic acid and formaldehyde to ethyl formate and diethoxymethane, respectively. Identification was conducted using a GC/MS system under scan mode and quantified using a selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode. Evaluation of the mass spectra of ethyl formate and diethoxymethane in the samples indicated that the method is specific. The limits of quantitation of the method were 0.5 ppm for formic acid and 0.2 ppm for formaldehyde. The precision of the method was demonstrated by the acceptable R.S.D. (≤10%) over a linear range of 0.5–10,000 ppm. The accuracy of the method was within 80–120% over the linearity range. The amounts of formic acid and formaldehyde in commonly used pharmaceutical excipients is reported.