Determination of benzalkonium chloride in ophthalmic solutions containing tyloxapol by solid-phase extraction and reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography.

A procedure using solid-phase extraction (Supelcoclean CN) followed by HPLC [Beckman Ultrasphere CN, acetonitrile:phosphate solution (60:40, v/v)] was developed and validated to quantitate the quaternary ammonium preservative benzalkonium chloride in an experimental ophthalmic formulation containing the polymeric material tyloxapol. This procedure makes routine determinations of benzalkonium chloride at concentrations of 0.0035 to 0.01% simpler than the traditional ion-pairing colorimetric methods. This method is quick, specific, and especially useful for drug product stability studies. In addition, because the method distinguishes each homologue, it can be extended to routinely determine the homologue ratio for quality control purposes.