Development and validation of chemometrics-assisted spectrophotometry and micellar electrokinetic chromatography for the determination of four-component pharmaceuticals

Two methods were developed for the simultaneous determination of the corticosteroid dexamethasone sodium phosphate (DEX), the Vitamins B6 and B12 and the anti-inflammatory piroxicam (PIR) in pharmaceutical tablets. Chemometrics-assisted spectrophotometry based on partial least-squares (PLS-1) regression of UV-Vis spectra and micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MEKC) were satisfactory applied to synthetic samples and to several commercial pharmaceuticals. Both described methodologies avoid preliminary sample separation steps. The results were statistically comparable to the reference high performance liquid chromatography method (HPLC). (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.