Abstract
This paper reports, for the first time, a liquid chromatographic method for the simultaneous determination of three frequently co‐administered active principles, two antibiotics, ciprofloxacin (CIPRO) and cloxacillin (CLOXA) belonging to the fluoroquinolones and β‐lactam families, respectively, and ibuprofen (IBU), a non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drug. The chromatographic separation was performed on a C‐18 analytical column, using isocratic elution with methanol‐acetonitrile‐pH 3 formate buffer (C~T~ = 0.1 M) (15 : 12 : 73, v/v/v) for 3 min and, after that, a linear gradient with methanol‐acetonitrile (88 : 12, v/v) for 8 min. Several absorption spectra were obtained for each peak using a DAD detector. Chromatograms at the maximum absorption wavelength for each analyte, 220 nm for both IBU and CLOXA, and 280 nm for CIPRO were selected as the most suitable. The proposed chromatographic method requires about 15 min per sample. The presence of a urine background was tested and no interference was found. The method was satisfactorily applied to the determination of CIPRO, CLOXA, and IBU, in fortified urine, and in urine samples from a patient undergoing treatment with these three active principles, among others. Limits of quantification in urine were 1.00, 1.70, and 2.87 μg/mL for CIPRO, CLOXA, and IBU, respectively.