Development and Validation of a Liquid Chromatography Method for the Simultaneous Determination of Eight Water-Soluble Vitamins in Multivitamin Formulations and Human Urine

Abstract

A simple, precise, and rapid RPLC method has been developed without incorporation of any ion-pair reagent for the simultaneous determination of vitamin C (C) and seven B-complex vitamins, viz, thiamine hydrochloride (B1), pyridoxine hydrochloride (B6), nicotinamide (B3), cyanocobalamine (B12), folic acid, riboflavin (B2), and 4-aminobenzoic acid (Bx). Separations were achieved within 12.0 min at 30 degrees C by gradient elution on an RP C18 column using a mobile phase consisting of a mixture of 15 mM ammonium formate buffer and 0.1% triethylamine adjusted to pH 4.0 with formic acid and acetonitrile. Simultaneous UV detection was performed at 275 and 360 nm. The method was validated for system suitability, LOD, LOQ, linearity, precision, accuracy, specificity, and robustness in accordance with International Conference on Harmonization guidelines. The developed method was implemented successfully for determination of the aforementioned vitamins in pharmaceutical formulations containing an individual vitamin, in their multivitamin combinations, and in human urine samples. The calibration curves for all analytes showed good linearity, with coefficients of correlation higher than 0.9998. Accuracy, intraday repeatability (n = 6), and interday repeatability (n = 7) were found to be satisfactory.