Reversed Phase High Performance Liquid Chromatographic Method for Simultaneous Estimation of Curcumin and Quercetin in Pharmaceutical Nanoformulation

Objective: The present study was aimed to develop a high performance liquid chromatographic method for simultaneous estimation of curcumin and quercetin and to implement the developed method for the estimation of curcumin and quercetin encapsulated in polymeric nanoparticles. Methods: Method development was carried out with different column, flow rate, elution mode, and buffer-solvent ratio to obtain adequate separation, resolution and symmetrical peak of curcumin and quercetin. The developed method was validated in accordance with international conference on harmonisation guideline. The developed method was implemented to estimate the amount of curcumin and quercetin encapsulated in Eudragit E 100 nanoparticles. Results: The optimum chromatographic condition with adequate resolution for curcumin (10.276 minutes) and quercetin (2.501 minutes) was achieved when the separation was carried using C18 column at a column oven temperature of 35°C with an isocratic elution mode of mobile phase composed of a degassed mixture of 0.1% ortho phosphoric acid and acetonitrile (50:50 v/v) at 1.2 mLmin-1 flow rate with a total run time of 15 minutes. The developed method was validated for system suitability, accuracy, precision, limit of detection, limit of quantitation, linearity, range and robustness. The encapsulation efficiency of curcumin (79% & 81%) and quercetin (91% & 98%) was estimated using the developed method. Conclusion: The developed analytical method is simple, precise, and reproducible and thus can be used for routine analysis of curcumin and quercetin in pharmaceutical formulation.