Design and evaluation of pharmaceutical availability, stability and quality of modified viscosity eye drops with choline salicylate.

These studies investigate the possibility of developing and using choline salicylate (CS) in ophthalmic therapy in the form of eye drops with increased viscosity. A 0.5% addition of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) was used as the viscosity increasing agent. The ability of CS to cross a hydrophilic membrane (regenerated cellulose membrane) was assessed by determining a rate constant consistent with zero order kinetics. In studies on a porcine cornea, the ability of CS to penetrate into the structure of the cornea was confirmed by determining the content of CS in the cornea after 5 minutes and 3 hours exposure to eye drops. The quality parameters of eye drops were assessed: pH, viscosity, osmolarity and microbiological purity. Stability tests were also performed on eye drops stored in unit minims packaging and in multi-dose bottle packaging. The following storage conditions were adopted: 40°C/75% RH, 25°C/60% RH, 2-8°C. The sensitivity of CS to light was also confirmed. The UV and HPLC-UV methods were used to assess the CS content, while the HPLC-UV and HPLC-MS/MS methods were used to assess the chromatographic purity.