Liquid Chromatographic Determination of Pioglitazone in Pharmaceuticals, Serum and Urine Samples

A rapid and reliable analytical method based on high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with UV detection (221nm) has been developed for the determination of the anti-hyperglycemic agent Pioglitazone in pharmaceutical formulations and biological fluids (serum and urine) after clean-up with solid-phase extraction. Chromatographic separation was achieved with a Chromolith Performance RP-18e (100×4.6mm) column using mobile phase composition of acetonitrile: mixed phosphate buffer (pH 2.5; 10mM) (30:70, v/v) with a flow rate of 2.0mL/min. The total run time was 2 min. under optimized conditions. The calibration curve was found to be linear in the range of 1-10 μg mL-1 with regression coefficient of 0.9996, and the lower limit of detection 72 ng/20μL injection. The method has been validated for the system suitability, linearity, precision and accuracy, limits of detection, specificity, stability and robustness. The %recovery of Pioglitazone in pharmaceutical formulations was found to be 104.7%. The assay has been applied successfully to the pharmaceutical Tablet samples and biological fluids (serum and urine) of healthy volunteers.