Simultaneous Quantitative Analysis of Salmeterol and Fluticasone in Inhalation Spray Using HPLC and a Fast Spectrophotometric Technique Combined with a Time Series Neural Network and Multivariate Calibration Methods

BACKGROUND: Chromatographic methods have been used for the simultaneous determination of salmeterol (SMT) and fluticasone (FLU). The methods take a lot of analysis time, need sample pre-treatment and large amounts of solvents, and are costly. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper was to propose a simple, quick, and low-cost method for the determination of SMT and FLU using a time series neural network and multivariate calibration methods, including partial least-squares (PLS) and principal component regression (PCR). METHODS: The simultaneous spectrophotometric determination of SMT and FLU in binary mixtures and anti-asthma spray was performed by applying multivariate calibration methods and an intelligent approach. RESULTS: The coefficient of determination (R2) of the time series neural network was obtained: 1 and 0.9997 for SMT and FLU, respectively. The mean recovery of PLS was found to be 99.29% and 99.84% for SMT and FLU, respectively. Also, the mean recovery related to the PCR method was 102.05% and 103.72% for SMT and FLU, respectively. CONCLUSION: The inhalation spray was assessed using HPLC and the results were compared with chemometrics methods via an analysis of variance (ANOVA) test. HIGHLIGHTS: Intelligent and multivariate calibration methods were proposed. Simultaneous spectrophotometric determination of salmeterol and fluticasone was studied in an anti-asthma spray. HPLC as a reference method was performed and compared with chemometrics methods. Rapid, simple, low-cost, and accurate are the benefits of the proposed approaches.