Stability-indicating high-performance thin-layer chromatographic determination of levonorgestrel and ethinyloestradiol in bulk drug and in low-dosage oral contraceptives

A stability-indicating high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) method was developed and validated for simultaneous determination of steroidal hormones levonorgestrel and ethinyloestradiol both in bulk drug and in low-dosage oral contraceptives. Optimization of conditions for the spectrodensitometric procedure was reached by eluting HPTLC silica gel plates in a 10 cm × 10 cm horizontal chamber. The solvent system consisted of hexane–chloroform–methanol (1.0:3.0:0.25, v/v/v). This system was found to give compact, dense and typical peaks for both levonorgestrel (Rf = 0.65 ± 0.03) and ethinyloestradiol (Rf = 0.43 ± 0.02). Densitometric analysis of the drugs was carried out in the reflectance mode at 225 nm by using a computer controlled densitometric scanner. The calibration curves of levonorgestrel and ethinyloestradiol were linear in the range of 200–800 and 40–160 ng per spot, respectively. The method was validated for precision, robustness and recovery. As the proposed method can effectively separate the drugs from their degradation products, it can be employed as a stability-indicating method.