Abstract

A simple, specific and accurate reverse phase liquid chromatographic method was developed for the simultaneous determination of atorvastatin calcium and nicotinic acid in tablet dosage forms. A phenomenex Luna C-18, 5 mm column having 250 × 4.6 mm i.d. in isocratic mode, with mobile phase containing 0.02 M potassium dihydrogen phosphate: methanol: acetonitrile (20:40:40, pH 4) was used. The flow rate was 1.0 ml/ min and effluents were monitored at 240 nm. The retention times of atorvastatin calcium and nicotinic acid were 3.6 min and 2.4 min, respectively. The linearity for atorvastatin calcium and nicotinic acid were in the range of 2-24 μg/ ml and 60-250 μg/ ml, respectively. The recoveries of atorvastatin calcium and nicotinic acid were found to be in the range of 97.93-101.16% and 98.82-101.30%, respectively. The proposed method was validated and successfully applied to the estimation of atorvastatin calcium and nicotinic acid in combined tablet formulations.