Quantitative determination of haloperidol in tablets by high performance thin-layer chromatography

A densitometric high performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) method was developed and validated for the quantitative analysis of haloperidol in tablets. Chromatographic separation was achieved on precoated silica gel F 254 HPTLC plates using a mixture of acetone/chloroform/n-butanol/acetic acid glacial/water (5:10:10:2.5:2.5 v/v/v/v/v) as the mobile phase. Quantitative analysis was carried out at a wavelength of 254 nm. The method was linear in the 10-100 ng/mu L range, with a determination coefficient of 0.999. The coefficients of variation for precision were not higher than 2.35%. The detection limit was 0.89 ng/mu L, and the quantification limit was 2.71 ng/mu L. The accuracy ranged from 97.76 to 100.33%, with a CV not higher than 4.50%. This method was successfully applied to quantify haloperidol in real pharmaceutical samples, including the comparison with HPLC measurements. The method was fast, specific, with a good precision and accuracy for the quantitative determination of haloperidol in tablets.