Micellar liquid chromatography for the determination of drug materials in pharmaceutical preparations and biological samples

Micellar liquid chromatography (MLC) is a simple, robust and well-established branch of modern high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) that can be used for the analysis of most drug materials in pharmaceutical preparations, serum and urine samples. This review, based on examples taken from the literature and some of the recent results of the authors' own research, presents the theoretical treatment, optimization strategy and applications of MLC to the determination of different groups of drug substances. The analytes treated here are androgens, antiepileptics, antihistamines, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, β-blockers, carbamates, diuretics, phenethylamines, steroids, sulfonamides and B vitamins. We discuss the best conditions, including the type of column, pH, and nature and concentration of surfactant and modifier. We demonstrate that MLC, which affords fast, efficient separations is a good solution for the determination of these drugs, especially in serum and urine samples, for which the need for sample pretreatment is dramatically reduced.