Abstract
A simple, selective salting out and stability-indicating thin layer chromatographic (SOTLC) technique was developed for determination of two antidiabetic drugs; glimepiride and metformin HCl in pure and in tablets as a binary mixture. Separation was performed on silica gel 60 F254 plates using aqueous ammonium sulfate and acetonitrile (7:3, v/v) as a mobile phase. The Rf values were 0.26 ± 0.02 and 0.73 ± 0.02 for glimepiride and metformin HCl, respectively. The separated bands were scanned at λ 237 nm using CAMAG TLC scanner III. The proposed method focusing on study of all the factors that play important role in the mechanism of salting out process. The proposed method was validated according to ICH guidelines and complied with USP31-NF26 validation guidelines. The correlation coefficients of calibration curves were 0.996 and 0.997 for glimepiride and metformin HCl, respectively, in the concentration range of 60-1,400 ng/band for both drugs. The investigated drugs were also subjected to acidic, basic, oxidative and photo-degradation and kinetic study was carried out.