Determination of Hydroxypropyl Methyl Cellulose in Contact Lens Care Solution by High Performance Gel Chromatography

High performance gel chromatography was applied to the determination of hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (HPMC) in contact lens care solution, and the effect of the other lubrication composition in care solution on the measurement was investigated. Contact lens care solutions with HPMC in the market were selected. Hydrogel chromatographic column (TSK-Gel α3000 and TSK-Gel α3000) was used as stationary phase, with 50 mmol·L-1 NaCl solution as mobile phase and flow rate of 0.7 mL·min-1. The RI Shimadzu RID-2A detector was used. Linear relationship between values of peak area and mass concentration of HPMC was kept in the range of 0.1-5.0 g·L-1 with detection limit (3S/N) of 0.056 g·L-1. The proposed method was applied to the analysis of contact lens care solutions, values of recovery found by standard addition method were in the range of 98.0%-102%. Precision of the method was tested in HPMC standard solutions for 6 determination, values of RSD′s (n=6) found were less than 1.5%.