Simultaneous Analysis of Cefoperazone and Its Degradation Products: Optimized HPLC approach

Abstract

The insight into the chromatographic methods revealed a limited number of highly sensitive procedures providing the selective determination of both cefoperazone and its degradation products with straightforward isocratic elution. Therefore, this research is focused on the optimization and determination of cefoperazone and its degradation products using HPLC–DAD (High Pressure Liquid Chromatography Diode Array Detection). During the HPLC method optimization, maximum separation was achieved using ACN : H₃PO₄ (30:70, v/v) at a flow rate of 0.8 cm³/min, which resulted in sharp and well-resolved peaks. The retention time was 6.7 ± 0.1 min. The hydrolysis of cefoperazone was performed at 25 ± 1 °C and 4 ± 1 °C for 7 days. At 25 °C, cefoperazone was hydrolyzed to its P1–P4 intermediates. This study illustrates the capability of optimizing the HPLC method for precise monitoring of cefoperazone and its degradation products with a suitable analysis time.