Qualitative and quantitative analysis of some tramadol registered and illegitimate dosage forms in Egypt

Abstract

Despite tramadol is a strong pain relief authorized medication, it is currently considered among the highly abused substances in Egypt. Due to consequent strict legal acts on the registered brands of tramadol, available illegitimate products were widely distributed on the streets in Egypt. The claim of many patients receiving treatment while suffering from seizures together with the assumption of inferior authenticity of these products, led the initiative to work on the qualitative and quantitative analysis of such products while comparing their content to the registered brands in the Egyptian market. Results obtained by applying a validated HPLC-DAD method as a highly efficient technique in pharmaceutical analysis revealed that most of the content of these products was within the limit of the labelled claim, with the exception of one compound that showed an additional different peak. Efforts to identify such a peak through analysis and comparison of the spectrum referred it to paracetamol, the well-known analgesic commonly combined with tramadol in its dosage forms. The employed HPLC procedure involved the use of a RP-C18 column, mobile phase of phosphate buffer (pH 6.0) and methanol (40:60, v/v) and diode array detection at 220 and 270 nm. Accurate, precise, and reliable testing procedures under governmental surveillance are required to assure the persistent quality and safety of the available drugs on the market.