Separation of Tramadol and Paracetamol in Pharmaceutical Formulations Using Thin Layer Chromatography with Sustainable Solvents Aligned to Pfizer's Green Chemistry Guidelines"

Abstract

A new, economic, eco-friendly and rapid thin layer chromatographic method was developed and validated for simultaneous detection and separation of Tramadol HCl and Paracetamol in pharmaceutical dosage forms. Forty - five sustainable solvent systems were examined from which only ten solvent systems which were the various combinations of Ethyl Acetate & Methanol, Methanol & Toluene and Ethyl Acetate, Methanol & Acetic acid, were found to be most suitable as in these systems most compact spots of Paracetamol and tramadol were obtained. The method employed TLC aluminium plates precoated with silica gel 60F254 as the stationary phase. UV detection was performed at a wavelength of 254 nm. It was also found that iodine fuming technique is the best visualising method for examining the TLC chromatograms of both drugs prior to subsequent instrumental analysis. Here in used solvents, Ethyl Acetate & Methanol are of preferred category and Toluene & Acetic acid are of usable category as per Pfizer’s solvent selection guide. So here we are trying to move towards the world of green chemistry.