Development and Validation of a Rapid Reverse Phase High-Performance Liquid Chromatography Method for Quantification of Fluconazole in Pharmaceutical Preparations
Main Article Content
Abstract
Background: Fluconazole is a triazole antifungal agent widely employed in the treat ment of systemic and superficial fungal infections. Accurate, precise, and reliable quantification of the active pharmaceutical ingredient in dosage forms is of critical importance for both quality control and therapeutic efficacy.
Methods: In this study, a reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) method was developed and validated for the quantitative determina tion of fluconazole in pharmaceutical preparations. Chromatographic separation was performed using a Zorbax C18 column (100 mm × 4.6 mm, 3.5 μm). The mobile phase consisted of a methanol–water mixture (70 : 30, v/v) in an isocratic system at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The injection volume was set at 5 μL, the detection wavelength at 210 nm, and the column temperature at 30°C. The system suitability parameters of the method were found to be within the acceptable limits.
Results: The retention time for fluconazole was determined as 1.13 ± 0.03 minutes. The method demonstrated linearity within the concentration range of 3.0 × 10−7 M to 9.0 × 10−6 M, with a correlation coefficient (r2) of 0.9999. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were calculated as 6.0 × 10−8 M and 1.8 × 10−7 M, respectively. Accuracy and precision values were within acceptable ranges for both intra-day and inter-day analyses. Recovery values ranged from 96.2% to 101.3%, while the relative standard deviation values remained below 2%.
Conclusion: The developed RP-HPLC method is a simple, accurate, precise, and robust approach that can be employed for the routine quality control of fluconazolen in pharmaceutical preparations. Moreover, the high sensitivity and reproducibility of the method indicate its potential applicability for the determination of fluconazole in biological samples in future studies.
Cite this article as: Dal Poçan AG. Development and validation of a rapid reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography method for quantification of fluconazole in pharmaceutical preparations. Trends in Pharmacy, 2025, 2, 0011, doi: 10.5152/TrendsPharm.2025.25011
Article Details

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
References
1.Lass-Flörl C. Triazole antifungal agents in invasive fungal infections: a comparative review. Drugs. 2011;71(18):2405 2419. [CrossRef]
2.Abe F, Usui K, Hiraki T. Fluconazole modulates membrane rigidity, heterogeneity, and water penetration into the plasma membrane in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Biochemistry. 2009;48(36):8494-8504. [CrossRef]
3.Wildfeuer A, Laufen H, Schmalreck AF, Yeates RA, Zimmer mann T. Fluconazole: comparison of pharmacokinetics, ther apy and in vitro susceptibility. Mycoses. 1997;40(7-8):259 265. [CrossRef]
4.Chandrasekaran K, Thilak Kumar R. Structural, spectral, ther modynamical, NLO, HOMO, LUMO and NBO analysis of flu conazole. Spectrochim Acta A Mol Biomol Spectrosc. 2015;150:974-991. [CrossRef]
5. Chawla G, Chaudhary KK. A review of HPLC technique cover ing its pharmaceutical, environmental, forensic, clinical and other applications. Int J Pharm Chem Anal. 2019;6(1):26-33. [CrossRef]
6.Mohamed EH, El Maraghy CM, Saeed M. Smart sequential spectrophotometric analysis of fluconazole and its impuri ties. Heliyon. 2024;10(8):e35936. [CrossRef]
7.Davtyan TK, Melikyan LA, Nikoyan NA, Aleksanyan HP, Grigo ryan NG. Development and validation of simple RP-HPLC method for intracellular determination of fluconazole con centration and its application to the study of Candida albi cans azole resistance. Int J Anal Chem. 2015;2015:576250. [CrossRef]
8. da Silva JT, de Oliveira MG, de Paula JR, Alves SF, Pellegrini F, Amaral AC. HPLC method validated for quantification of flu conazole co-encapsulated with propolis within chitosan nan oparticles. Indian J Microbiol. 2021;61(3):364-369. [CrossRef]
9. Liew KB, Loh GOK, Tan YTF, Peh KK. Development and applica tion of simple HPLC-UV method for fluconazole quantification in human plasma. Int J Pharm Pharm Sci. 2012;4(4):118-121.
10. Shrivastava S, Deshpande P, Daharwal SJ. Key aspects of analytical method development and validation. J Ravishankar Univ Part-B. 2019;31(1):53-60. [CrossRef]
11. Ermer J. Validation in pharmaceutical analysis. Part I: an inte grated approach. J Pharm Biomed Anal. 2001;24(5-6):755 767. [CrossRef]
12. Bhavna OA, Bhargava S International Council for Harmonisa tion (ICH) guidelines. Regulatory Affairs in the Pharmaceuti cal Industry. In: Amsterdam: Elsevier; 2022:161-176. [CrossRef]
13. Wells ML, Zibas SA. Validation of chromatographic methods. In: Grinberg N, Rodriguez S, eds. Ewing’s Analytical Instru mentation Handbook. 4th ed. Boca Raton: CRC Press; 2019:943-962. [CrossRef]
14. Coleman J, Wrzosek TJ, Roman R, Peterson J, McAllister P. Setting system suitability criteria for detectability in high performance liquid chromatography methods using signal to-noise ratio statistical tolerance intervals. J Chromatogr A. 2001;917(1-2):23-27. [CrossRef]
15. European Medicines Agency. ICH Q2(R2): Validation of ana lytical procedures – Scientific guideline. Published 2023. Available at: https:// www.ema. europa.e u/en/ich -q2r2-validation -analyti cal-proc edures-s cientifi c-guidel ine. Accessed September 1, 2025.
16. Lotfy HM, Monir HH, Abd El-Aleem AE-A-B. Novel spectro photometric methods for the determination of fluconazole in the presence of its oxidative degradation product. J Chil Chem Soc. 2012;57(4):1447-1455. [CrossRef]
17. Barry AL, Pfaller MA, Rennie RP, Fuchs PC, Brown SD. Preci sion and accuracy of fluconazole susceptibility testing by broth microdilution, Etest, and disk diffusion methods. Anti microb Agents Chemother. 2002;46(6):1781-1784. [CrossRef]
18. Macartney RA, Fricker ATR, Smith AM, Fedele S, Roy I, Knowles JC. A RP-HPLC-UV method for the dual detection of fluconazole and clobetasol propionate and application to a model dual drug delivery hydrogel. Anal Methods. 2025;17(18):3694-3704. [CrossRef]
