High-performance thin-layer chromatographic separation of ranitidine hydrochloride and two related compounds

Ranitidine hydrochloride and its two related compounds, used in the USP TLC purity testing of the drug, were separated on a high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) RP-18 WF_254S precoated plate using methanol–3% NH₄OH (4:1, v/v) as the mobile phase. The main advantage of the proposed HPTLC system over the USP TLC system for testing the purity of ranitidine is a better and more efficient separation of these three compounds in a shorter time and with less consumption of solvents. The system is promising from the point of view of the development of a new method for the TLC purity testing of ranitidine hydrochloride. A video system was used for imaging thin-layer chromatograms. Direct UV densitometric quantitation of the three compounds and a model for the calculation of analytical performance parameters is presented in the second part of the paper.