Simultaneous Determination of Some Pharmaceuticals in Hospital Effluents Using HPLC with UV and Fluorescence Detectors

The development and validation of an HPLC/UV/Fluorescence (FL) detection method is described, whichenables the measurement of the most consumed pharmaceuticals (methotrexate, caffeine, diclofenac, glimepirideand ibuprofen) in Jordanian hospital effluents. Separation was done on a RP-C8 column at a flow rate of 1ml/min using 1:1 H2O/acetonitrile with 0.1% trifluoroacetic acid. The samples (200 ml each) were extracted andcleaned-up on C18 cartridges. Correlation coefficients of the pharmaceuticals calibration were higher than 0.997using a UV detector and 0.996 using a fluorescence detector for methotrexate. Recoveries were ranged from87% to 108.3%