Gastrointestinal tract disorders constitute a heavy burden to healthcare providers. To eradicate Helicobacter pylori infection, different triple therapy protocols have been proposed. Among which are combinations of proton pump inhibitors (e.g., omeprazole), histamine-2 receptor antagonists (e.g., famotidine), along with antibiotics (e.g., amoxicillin). In this work, a sensitive and accurate high-performance thin-layer chromatographic method was developed for the simultaneous determination of amoxicillin, metronidazole, and famotidine in bulk powder and laboratory-prepared combined-tablet mixtures. Complete separation of the cited compounds was achieved using pre-coated silica gel plates with a mixture of methanol:chloroform:toluene:water:glacial acetic acid (5:2:1.5:0.5:0.1 v/v/v/v/v) as the mobile phase. The method was fully validated as per the international conference of harmonization guidelines. Good linearity, a correlation coefficient of 0.9991, was obtained in the concentration ranges 0.1-1.6 μg/band (amoxicillin), 0.1-0.9 μg/band (metronidazole), and 0.1-0.9 μg/band (famotidine). Since the method allowed the determination of the three compounds in combined tablets with a high degree of selectivity, accuracy, precision, with cost-effectiveness, it could be used for regular quality control. Moreover, the applicability of the proposed method was extended to the determination of the ternary mixture in simulated gastric juice. Method greenness was assessed using different green metrics.
Keywords: amoxicillin; famotidine; greenness; high-performance thin-layer chromatography; metronidazole.
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