Simultaneous determination of ampicillin sodium and sulbactam sodium in powder for injection by HPLC

Ampicillin and Sulbactam (2: 1, w/w) are combined in formulation to provide broader antibacterial action in treatment of many infections. The development of analytical method for simultaneouly determine these two compounds was difficult because of the differences in their chemical structures and ratio in the formulation. Current published methods still have some limitations. In this study, we developed an alternative high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) assay method for simultaneously determination of ampicillin sodium and sulbactam sodium in powder for injection. Method validation of HPLC method was conducted to determine linearity, precision, accuracy, system suitability, robustness. The linearity of the calibration curves in the desired concentration range was good (r(2) > 0.9994). RSDs of intra-day and inter-day precision obtained were less than 2.00 %. Accuracy was obtained with the recoveries in range of 98.42 % and 101.36 %. As a result of system suitability, RSD of both retention time and the peak area obtained were not more than 1.0 %. The values of plate number were more than 7000 and symmetric factors obtained were 0.8. As intermediate-precision and robustness of the developed assay, it could be expected to become valuable tools for revising the Korean Pharmacopoeia (KP XI).