Enantiomeric determination, validation and robustness studies of racemic citalopram in pharmaceutical formulations by capillary electrophoresis

A chiral capillary electrophoresis (CE) method has been developed allowing the enantiomeric separation of racemic citalopram (R-(−) and S-(+) citalopram) using as chiral selector carboxymethyl-γ-cyclodrextrin (CM-γ-CD). The influence of chemical and instrumental parameters on the separation such as cyclodextrin (CD) and buffer concentrations, buffer pH, voltage, injection pressure, …, was investigated. Good chiral separation of the racemic mixture was achieved in less than 4 min using a fused-silica capillary and as background electrolyte (BGE) a phosphate buffer solution (20 mM, pH 7) containing 0.15% (w/v) of CM-γ-CD as chiral selector. The separation was driven in normal polarity mode at 15 °C, 30 kV and hydrodynamic injection. In order to validate the method, the stability of the solutions, precision (repeatability, reproducibility and F-Snedecor test), linearity (Lack of Fit and ANOVA tests) accuracy (98–101%), detection and quantitation limits (0.06 and 0.2 mg L−1, respectively), on a selected analytical placebo, were examined. Besides, a robustness test was performed using the Plackett–Burman fractional factorial experimental design using a matrix of 15 experiments for seven factors (internal parameters) with a statistical treatment suggested by Youden and Steinner. The proposed method is fast, sensitive, inexpensive and, besides, it has been evaluated by means of an extensive validation study and an exhaustive robustness test. The scope of this validated and robust method has been proved in the analysis of four pharmaceutical formulations; two of them (recently available in Spain), which just contained S-(+)-citalopram (escitalopram) as active principle. Recoveries between 101 and 103%, with regard to their nominal contents were obtained. In the other two pharmaceutical ones, the method provided the separation and quantification of both chiral isomers in the existing racemic mixture.