Validation of a method for simultaneous determination of menthol and methyl salicylate in pharmaceuticals by capillary gas chromatography with cool on-column injection.

The conditions for the identification and quantitative determination of menthol and methyl salicylate in ointment Balsamum Mentholi Compositum on a hydrocarbon-ester base (vaseline-lanolin), have been established by using capillary gas chromatography with cool on-column injection and flame ionization detection (FID). The good separation of menthol (tR = 7.2 min), methyl salicylate (tR = 8.7 min) and thymol (tR = 12.3 min) and camphor (tR = 6.0 min), used as alternative internal standards, beside vehiculum constituents (peak of tR = 15.8 min) was obtained. The method features a high sensitivity - detection limit for menthol and methyl salicylate was 0.1 ng and 5.0 ng, respectively, high accuracy, precision and recovery for active substances: 100.0% +/- 2.2%, when camphor was used as an internal standard.