Determination of tromethamine in an eye-care pharmaceutical by capillary electrophoresis.

Tromethamine [tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane] is used as an emulsifying agent, alkaliser and buffering agent in pharmaceutical preparations such as eye-care solutions. A new method for the determination of this compound in an eye-care preparation was developed using capillary zone electrophoresis with indirect UV detection. The method displayed linearity between 2.5 and 25 mg l-1 with a correlation coefficient of 0.9992. The limit of detection was 2.5 mg l-1. Precision and accuracy were determined as relative standard deviation and % deviation, and were found to be 0.42% and 1.62%, respectively. Recovery studies of tromethamine in the pharmaceutical preparation gave a 102.98% recovery.