Elimination of adsorption effects in the analysis of water-soluble vitamins in pharmaceutical formulations by capillary electrophoresis

A tendency to an increase in migration times was observed when different water-soluble vitamins were analysed repeatedly in pharmaceutical preparations by capillary electrophoresis. In order to better understand the origin of this effect, the influence of the vitamins and the excipients, such as cellulose derivatives, was investigated. These studies indicated that the increase in analyte migration times was most probably due to the adsorption of different kinds of constituents to the capillary wall. Different rinsing procedures were tested in order to eliminate these unfavourable effects. A rinse of the capillary with a 25 mM sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) solution in the running buffer between successive runs was found to be particularly effective when the analysis was performed by free solution capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE). When the vitamins were determined by micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) using SDS as surfactant, a short capillary rinse with the running buffer was sufficient to obtain reproducible migration times. The CZE and MEKC methods developed were validated and compared. Both methods could be applied to the determination of water-soluble vitamins in different multivitamin formulations. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.