Simultaneous Determination of Diosmin and Hesperidin in Pharmaceuticals by RPLC using Ionic Liquids as Mobile Phase Modifiers

Diosmin and hesperidin are natural flavonoid glycosides found in various plant materials, mainly in citrus fruits in different concentrations. Diosmin for pharmaceutical use is obtained mainly semi-synthetically from hesperidin. Hesperidin often accompanies diosmin as a natural impurity in different pharmaceutical formulations; therefore, a simple, fast and precise method for the simultaneous assay of diosmin and hesperidin in pharmaceutical formulations has been developed to control their contents. Chromatographic resolution was performed using a column with C-18 packing and the following mobile phase: methanol/water (45: 55, v/v) with 0.025% added didecyldimethylammonium lactate, which significantly affects retention, shortening analysis time and having a positive impact on the symmetry of resulting chromatographic peaks. The method shows linearity between 2.5 and 100 μg/mL, high repeatability (0.39 and 0.42% for diosmin and hesperidin, respectively) and accuracy of 96 to 102% for both the assayed compounds. Intraday and interday precision of the new method were less than RSD% 1, 2.  The limit of detection of the assayed compounds is 2.5 and 1.2 μg/mL for diosmin and hesperidin, respectively. The method was tested on several pharmaceutical products available in Poland.