Metformin and pioglitazone are commonly used in combined dosage formulations for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Reversed-phase chromatography has previously been used for the determination of these two compounds. However, metformin is a small, highly polar molecule and is thus poorly retained on reversed-phase columns. Pioglitazone contains both hydrophilic and hydrophobic functional groups. Cyano columns exhibit an intermediate polarity and therefore may be a good option for the separation of these two components. In this study, a method was developed to simultaneously separate and quantify metformin and pioglitazone in pharmaceutical formulations. This analysis is further confounded by the disproportion between their masses present in common formulations. The optimized method employed a mobile phase that consisted of methanol and aqueous ammonium acetate buffer (15 mM). Retentions of metformin and pioglitazone were similarly affected by pH and exhibited contrasting dependencies on methanol content. Pharmaceutical pills were subjected to a fast, ultrasound-assisted extraction in methanol. Subsequently, the optimized method was successfully used for the simultaneous determination of metformin and pioglitazone in a combined dosage pharmaceutical pill.

Simultaneous HPLC determination of the antidiabetic drugs metformin and pioglitazone on a cyano column

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.