Development and Validation of a Stability-Indicating LC Method for Curcumin

A simple, isocratic, stability-indicating liquid chromatographic method for quantitative determination of curcumin was successfully developed. The chromatographic separations were achieved using a Hi-Q-Sil C18; 4.6 mm x 250 mm and 10 mu m particle size column employing acetonitrile and acetate buffer (pH 3.0; 60: 40, v/v) as the mobile phase. The analyte was subjected to acidic, basic, oxidative, thermal and photo degradation. The method was validated with respect to linearity, precision, accuracy, limit of detection and limit of quantification. Curcumin was detected by UV-Vis detector at 425 nm whereas the degradation products were detected at 280 nm. The method was linear over the concentration range of 1-10 mu g mL(-1). The limit of detection was found to be 0.06 mu g mL(-1) and the quantification limit was 0.21 mu g mL(-1). Considerable degradation of the analyte was observed when it was subjected to alkaline conditions. Accuracy, evaluated as recovery, was in the range of 97-103%. Intra-day precision and intermediate precision showed relative standard deviations < 1% and < 2% respectively.