TLC Method Assisted by Digital Images for Analysis of Ivermectin-Based Product.

BACKGROUND

Ivermectin (IVE) is an antiparasitic sold in the form of tablets, pastes, and injectable solutions. Neither the literature nor the official compendiums present an environmentally friendly method for analyzing the final IVE product by thin-layer chromatography (TLC) assisted by digital images. This combination strengthens the advantages of cost, handling, time, execution, and process optimization-items that green and clean analytical chemistry values and the National Environmental Methods Index (NEMI), Eco-Scale Assessment (ESA), Analytical GREEnness Metric (AGREE), and Green Analytical Procedure Index (GAPI) tools measure.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this work is to develop and validate an eco-efficient, fast, economical, and easy-to-perform method for analysis of IVE injectable solution by TLC assisted by digital images.

METHOD: Silica gel plate, microsyringe, and ethyl acetate: ethanol (13:2, v/v) as the mobile phase were used in the method. The pixels were analyzed by Image J software after the spots were photographed under UV light.

RESULTS

The method was selective when comparing standard and sample, indicative of stability by forced degradation test, linear (100-900 µg/mL), precise (RSD <2%), accurate, and rugged to modifications in the analytical process. The method was able to quantify commercial products, showing an average content of 98.95%. The greenness of the developed method presented NEMI with four green quadrants, ESA and AGREE with a score of 83 and 0.61, respectively, and GAPI predominantly green and yellow.

CONCLUSIONS

The method was selective, indicative of stability, linear, precise, accurate, rugged, and green, by NEMI, ESA, AGREE, and GAPI, to quantify IVE in injectable solution. Additionally, it combined the advantages of TLC and digital image analysis.

HIGHLIGHTS: The work shows a TLC method assisted by digital images for analysis of ivermectin-based product.