A COMPARISON OF FLUORESCENCE AND ULTRAVIOLET DETECTORS USING THE RP–HPLC TECHNIQUE FOR THE DETERMINATION OF TRAMADOL HYDROCHLORIDE (TRM-HCl): A CASE STUDY OF AL-BAYDA CITY, LIBYA

A fast and sensitive chromatographic RP–HPLC technique for examining tramadol hydrochloride (TRM-HCl) in tablets through using fluorescence detection (FL-D) and ultraviolet detection (UV-D) is reported in this paper. The separation was carried out using the reverse phase method on a Brownlee BIO C18 analytical column with a mobile phase consisting of 0.1% acetic acid and acetonitrile (2.5:7.5 v/v), which was pumped with an isocratic elution at a flow rate of 1 ml/min. The LOD and LQD values obtained in the current study indicate that FL-D is more sensitive, and hence preferable to UV detectors in the quantification of TRM-HCl tablets over the entire concentration range used (5-125 µg/ml). The study showed that the mean percentage recoveries from five samples were 99.93-100.023% (FL-D), which is somewhat similar to that of the UV-D (99.93-100.028). In conclusion, although Fl-D is acceptable for the quantification of tramadol tablets, UV-D offers higher detection sensitivity and reproducibility, particularly within concentrations that are low in the deposit collectors.