Development of a novel, fast, simple, nonderivative HPLC method with direct UV measurement for quantification of memantine hydrochloride in tablets

Fast, simple, accurate, and reproducible reverse phase-high-performance liquid chromatography method with direct ultraviolet measurement of memantine hydrochloride in tablets was developed, without any chemical derivatization pretreatment. Three main problems appear during chromatographic analysis of memantine: detection, achieving appropriate column retention, and limited choice of mobile phase components, as a result of memantine molecular structure. Among more than 35 tested columns, the best retention and peak symmetry yielded two C8 and three C18 columns with different characteristics, at a temperature of 30 degrees C, mobile phase composed of 1%, v/v, acetonitrile and 99%, v/v, of 0.05-0.1% phosphoric acid or 2.5-5 mmol phosphate buffer, at flow rate of 1 mL/min and injection volume of 5 mu L. The retention time of memantine was between 2.6 and 4 min. Both mobile phase concepts showed perfect linearity, precision, and accuracy. This is the first successful and reproducible direct reverse phase-high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet quantification method for memantine.