A greener RP-HPTLC-densitometry method for the quantification of apremilast in nanoformulations and commercial tablets: Greenness assessment by analytical eco-scale, ChlorTox, and AGREE methods

The greener “high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC)” methods for apremilast (APM) analysis in pharmaceutical products and biological fluids are not currently available in the literature. Accordingly, this study involves the development and validation of a rapid, simple, economical, and greener reversed-phase HPTLC methodology for the estimation of APM in prepared nanoparticles (NPs), nanoemulsion, and marketed tablets. The estimation of APM was conducted using “RP-18 silica gel 60 F254S HPTLC plates” as the stationary phase. The combination of ethanol/water (65:35, v/v) was used as the greener mobile phase for APM analysis. The greenness of the method was predicted using three different approaches, namely Analytical Eco-Score (AES), ChlorTox, and the Analytical GREENness (AGREE) approaches. The λ_max = 238 nm was used for the APM detection. By contrasting its single band at R_f = 0.61 ± 0.01 with those of pure APM, the HPTLC peaks for APM in an prepared NP formulation, nanoemulsion, and marketed tablets were identified. In the concentration range of 100–700 ng/band, the proposed analytical methodology was linear. The values of AES, ChlorTox, and AGREE were determined to be 93, 0.66 g, and 0.89, respectively, demonstrated an outstanding greener profile for the existing method. The amount of APM in the tablet, NP formulation, and nanoemulsion was found to be 98.40, 101.60, and 99.37 %, respectively. According to the findings of validation tests and pharmaceutical analysis, the suggested analytical technique could be successfully applied for the routine examination of APM in marketed tablets and laboratory generated nanoformulations.