Micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography determination of alginic acid in pharmaceutical formulations after treatment with alginate lyase and UV detection

A new highly specific and sensitive capillary electrophoresis method (electrokinetic chromatography with SDS) for the determination of the total alginic acid (AA) content in pharmaceutical formulations is described by means of capillary electrophoresis at 230 nm after treatment with alginate lyase [4.2.2.3] and separation of unsaturated products, Δ-oligomers (ΔHexA-[HexA]n), in particular, DP3 (ΔHexA-HexA-HexA) and DP4 (ΔHexA-HexA-HexA-HexA). Using a buffer constituted with 10 mM sodium borate and 50 mM SDS at pH 9.0, micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography was able to determine with very high resolution the AA Δ-oligomers produced by the action of the lyase (mainly DP3 and DP4) as one single species. The intra- and inter-day variations (CV%) were between 6.3 and 9.1 for migration time and between 2.5 and 5.7 for peak area, respectively. The calibration curve showed good linearity for the examined concentration range (60-360 ng) with an average correlation coefficient greater than 0.980. The lowest detection limit and the lowest quantitation limit of the method were 15 ng (0.25 mg/mL) and 40 ng (0.67 mg/mL), respectively. The intra- and inter-day variations in terms of CV% were 5.5 and 8.6%, respectively, and the intra- and inter-day accuracy was estimated to range from 4.1 to 8.9%, while the percent recoveries of AA were calculated to be 102, 97 and 93% for different AA amounts. Variations in temperatures, voltage and buffer composition in comparison with adopted conditions within a 10% limit do not modify the electrophoresis results. The evaluation of AA was performed in both solid and liquid pharmaceutical formulations also in the presence of other ingredients, in particular, aluminium, sodium and potassium bicarbonate, and emulsifying and flavouring agents. The quantitative results obtained were 101.2±3.4% of AA content in tablets and 98.4±2.8% in liquid formulation, in total conformity with the label claims.