Determination of poloxamer 188 and poloxamer 407 using high-performance thin-layer chromatography in pharmaceutical formulations

Poloxamers (PXMs) are amphiphilic non-ionic block polymers commonly used in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. In spite of the wide use of PXMs, few studies have dealt with the analysis of these polymers in pharmaceutical preparations. In this work, high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) has been used to quantify both PXM-188 and PXM-407 in pharmaceutical preparations. The separation of these compounds was carried out using reverse phase HPTLC plates with a chloroform–methanol mixture as the mobile phase. Detection was performed densitometrically using the Dragendorff's reagent for the visualization of PXMs. Quality parameters were established, and the detection limits ranged from 24 to 47 ng/spot. A good precision (day to day and run to run), with relative standard deviations <11.18%, was obtained. The proposed method was satisfactorily applied to the analysis of laboratory-made and commercial pharmaceutical products.