TASK 4:

HPLC Analysis of Vitamin C in Tablets

Introduction In the pharmaceutical industry, HPLC is routinely employed to analyze drug products. The manufacturer MUST ensure that each product meets the label claim for amount of drug present and each dosage unit (tablets, capsules, etc.) MUST have a consistent amount of drug present. As the quality control analyst, you will be analyzing some Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) tablets to ensure they meet the label claim and that we have a consistent amount of Vitamin C in each tablet. Instrument Set-Up Use the SpectraPhysics High Performance Liquid Chromatograph (HPLC 3) system equipped with a C-18 reverse phase column, a 20 ul sample loop and a UV-Vis Detector connected to the Varian Star Chromatography data system. Mobile Phase Preparation Prepare 500 ml of a solution of 95 % water: 5 % methanol and add 6 drops of 6 M H2SO4. Filter mobile phase and degas using vacuum filtration. Press Run on pump module to pump mobile phase through HPLC at a flow rate of 1 ml/min. Wavelength Max for Vitamin C Fill a cuvet with the 0.05 mg/ml Vitamin C standard and determine the wavelength of maximum absorbance for Vitamin C using one of the scanning UV/Vis spectrophotometers. Use this wavelength for your absorbance readings for your detector. Press Status and scroll down arrow and press + or to select range of 3.0 on detector module Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid) Standard Preparation Prepare a 0.20 mg/ml Vitamin C standard diluted with water. Prepare a 0.15 mg/ml Vitamin C standard diluted with water Prepare a 0.10 mg/ml Vitamin C standard diluted with water. Prepare a 0.05 mg/ml Vitamin C standard diluted with water. Sample Preparation Five tablets have been pulverized and labeled A, B, C, D, and E and record masses for each tablet Dissolve 300 mg (mass to nearest 0.1 mg) in water and dilute to 100.0 ml of water. Do NOT heat solution. Take a 10.00 ml aliquot of above solution and dilute to 100.0 ml with water Repeat for the other four additional tablets. Analysis of Vitamin C NOTE: Filter each solution prior to injecting with a syringe filter. Enter your name for Operator Name under instrument configuration for Instrument 1. Open method SpectraPhysics_start and copy to your own method name and then modify your method as necessary. Select Inject Single Sample on Star WorkStation and enter Sample Name then select Inject Flush sample loop with 1 ml of standard solutions and inject into the HPLC. Flush sample loop with 1 ml of filtered samples of Vitamin C and inject into the HPLC. (Use syringe filter) Result Calculations Prepare a calibration curve and determine concentration of Vitamin C in each sample solution Calculate mass of Vitamin C in each of the five tablets as follows: = concentration (mg/mL) x100 mL x100 mL x tablet mass (mg) 10 mL x sample mass (mg) Calculate the relative standard deviation and average for the five sample results.

The sample of tablets must have an average result (Assay) within 10 % of the label claim and the relative standard deviation (Content Uniformity) must be less than 5 % for the tablets to be passed along to the consumers. Do the tablets pass?