Abstract

A simple and sensitive, HPTLC method has been developed for the quantitative estimation of gatifloxacin in its single component tablet formulations (400 mg). Gatifloxacin was chromatographed on silica Gel 60 F254 TLC plate using n-butanol: methanol: ammonia (6 M) (5:1:2 v/v) as mobile phase. Gatifloxacin showed Rf value 0.47±0.03 and scanned at 292 nm using a Camag TLC Scanner 3. The method was validated in terms of linearity (400-1200 ng/spot), precision (intra-day variation 1.3 to 3.2%, inter-day variation 3.9 to 5.0%), accuracy (93.3 to 99.4%) and specificity. The limit of detection and limit of quantification for gatifloxacin were found to be 10 ng/spot and 50 ng/spot, respectively. The developed method was successfully used for the assay of gatifloxacin tablet formulations. The method is simple, sensitive and precise; it can be used for the routine quality control testing of marketed formulations.