Liquid chromatography of josamycin on poly(styrene-divinylbenzene)

An isocratic liquid chromatographic method for the assay and purity control of josamycin using wide-pore poly(styrene-divinylbenzene) as the stationary phase is presented. Josamycin has been well separated from all the related leucomycins, present as impurities in commercial samples. Wide-pore PLRP-S 8 μm 1000 A has shown the best selectivity. The separation has been carried out at 65°C with a mobile phase of 2-methyl-2-propanol/0.2 mol/l potassium phosphate buffer pH 10.5/water (24.5: 5: 70.5, V/V) and a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min. UV detection has been performed at 232 nm. The total analysis time has been about 40 min. The method has been used to analyse commercial bulk samples and tablets containing josamycin base.