Development and validation of LC–MS/MS method for the determination of cyproheptadine in several pharmaceutical syrup formulations

A rapid and sensitive liquid chromatographic–tandem mass spectrometric (LC–MS/MS) method was developed and validated for the qualitative and quantitative assay of cyproheptadine (CP) in pharmaceutical samples. Diphenylpyraline hydrochloride (DPP) was used as an internal standard (IS). Two multiple reaction-monitoring (MRM) transitions for each analyte were observed: 288.1/96.1 and 288.1/191.2 for CP and 282.1/167.2 and 282.1/116.3 for DPP. The retention time of the drug was 7.29 min. The analytical method was successfully validated for linearity (1–100 ng/ml), intra-day precision, inter-day precision, and accuracy. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were 0.86 and 0.98 ng/ml, respectively. The proposed method was applied to analyse the cyproheptadine content from seven different syrup formulations.