Simultaneous determination of triamcinolone acetonide and oxymetazoline hydrochloride in nasal spray formulations by HPLC

A high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method with UV detection at 232 nm was developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of triamcinolone acetonide (TAA) and oxymetazoline hydrochloride (OXY) in nasal spray formulations. The chromatographic system consisted of a μBondapak™ CN column (150 mm × 3.9 mm), 5 μm particle size with a mobile phase composition of acetonitrile:ammonium acetate (pH 5.0, 20 mM) (10:90, v/v) at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. Calibration curves were linear for both TAA and OXY in the concentration range of 2.5–25.0 μg/mL. The limit of detection and quantitation were 0.29 and 0.88 μg/mL for OXY and 0.24 and 0.73 μg/mL for TAA. The described method was further applied to the analysis and stability studies of two nasal spray formulations I and II prepared from TAA and OXY commercial nasal spray products. The stability of OXY and TAA in the commercial products and the nasal formulations I and II were analyzed after 30 days at room temperature and 30 days at 40 °C/60% relative humidity. The results of the stability study showed that OXY and TAA in the commercial nasal spray products and the nasal formulations I and II were stable at 20–25 °C (room temperature) but TAA was unstable at 40 °C/60% relative humidity. TAA exhibited more than 10% loss at 14 days in both the nasal formulations and in the commercial products. OXY showed increased degradation at 40 °C/60% relative humidity but <10%.