In this work, DryLab is used to accurately determine the design space for critical resolution in the analysis of water-soluble vitamins by HPLC. The multifactorial optimization of three measured parameters (gradient time, temperature, ternary eluent composition (B1/B2)) and seven calculated ones (flow rate, column length, column internal diameter, dwell volume, extracolumn volume, %B [start], and %B [end]) are illustrated. DryLab is used to examine multifactorial effects of these 3+7 parameters on critical resolution and selectivity. Multidimensional robust regions of high critical Rs were defined and graphically verified. The optimum method was selected based on the best resolution separation in the shortest run time. Predicted retention times of all peaks were found to be in excellent match with the virtual ones.

Highlights:

• Impurity profiling of a triple combination anti-HIV drug by SFC and RPLC is reported.
• Method development strategies and figures of merit with UV detection are discussed.
• A high degree of orthogonality was achieved with SFC.
• SFC also gave a more uniform distribution of components across the separation space.
• Potential impurities/degradation products were quantitated at the ≤0.1 area% level.

Highlights:

• Comparative study between column selectivity in RP-LC obtained for a real biomedical separation was reported.
• We performed classification of 24 RP-LC columns based on the QSRR approach.
• The reliability of the theoretical QSRR-model results was examined against column test performance based on the LC analysis of moclobemide and its two metabolites using two chemometric techniques.
• Principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA) were applied.

Free amino acids are closely related to the savory taste and beneficial effects of tea, and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is the most widespread analytical approach for simultaneous determination of free amino acids in tea. However, the reported HPLC methods have drawbacks such as long run times, low resolution, or poor efficiency. In this study, a special amino acid analysis column was used to separate and verify 21 amino acids including l-theanine, the predominant amino acid in tea. The mobile phases, including the sodium acetate and acetic acid concentration in buffer B, and the pH and concentration of sodium acetate in buffer A were optimized. The elution gradients were optimized using DryLab software. In this way, an online o-phthaldialdehyde precolumn derivatization HPLC-fluorescence detection method was developed for simultaneous determination of 21 amino acids. Comparison to other HPLC methods for simultaneous determination of free amino acids in tea showed that our method is easy (automated derivatization), quick (30 min), inexpensive, and green (using a minimum of solution). It has good resolution (≥1.8) and high selectivity (interpark time ≥ 0.5 min). Free amino acids in six tea samples were analyzed. This work provides an HPLC method to simultaneously measure 21 amino acids in tea and potential in other food products.

A stability-indicating ultra high performance liquid chromatographic (UHPLC) method has been developed for purity testing of ebastine and its pharmaceutical formulations. Successful chromatographic separation of the API from impurities was achieved on a Waters Acquity UPLC BEH C18, 50mm×2.1mm, 1.7 µm particle size column with gradient elution of 10mM acetate buffer pH 6.2 and a mixture of acetonitrile/2-propanol(1:1) as the mobile phase. Incorporating Quality by Design (QbD) principles to the method development approach by using the chromatography modeling software DryLab allows the visualization of a “Design Space”, a region in which changes to method parameters will not significantly affect the results as defined in the ICH guideline Q8 (R2). A verification study demonstrated that the established model for Design Space is accurate with a relative error of prediction of only 0.6%.

The method was fully validated for specificity, linearity, accuracy and precision, and robustness in compliance to the ICH guideline Q2 (R1). The method was found to be linear in the concentration range from the quantification limit(LOQ) to 125 of the specification limit for ebastine and each of the impurities with correlation coefficients of not less than 0.999. The recovery rate was between 98.15 and 100.30% for each impurity. The repeatability and intermediate precision (RSD) were less than 3.2% for ebastine and each of the impurities. The robustness of the developed method was studied by varying the six parameters: gradient time, temperature, ternary composition of the eluent, flow rate and start and end concentration of the gradient at 3 levels (+1, 0, −1). The resulting 729 experiments were performed in silico from the previously constructed model for Design Space and showed that the required resolution of 2.0 can be reached in all experiments. To prove the stability-indicating performance of the method, forced degradation (acid and base hydrolysis, oxidation, photolytic and thermal stress conditions) of ebastine was carried out. Baseline separation could be achieved for all peaks of the impurities, the degradation products and the API. Total runtime was only 4 min,which is an impressive 40-fold increase in productivity in comparison to themethod published in the Ph. Eur.monograph and allowed purity testing of more than 360 samples per day.

This article discusses the development of chromatography modelling of the last 30 years from the first software package for calculating resolution and capacity factors to the visual modelling of chromatograms for testing peak movements with altering elution conditions. Different approaches are discussed, such as retention modelling based on measurements, others based on molecular structure or on statistical considerations. The state-of-the-art will be demonstrated using DryLab with a few applications of industrial importance.