Utilization of Hydrophilic Imidazolium-Based Ionic Liquid as an Eco-Friendly Modifier for the Simultaneous Liquid Chromatographic Determination of Statins in Pharmaceutical Tablets

Statins, also known as HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, are utilized for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia. A novel green modifier, consisting of small amounts of hydrophilic imidazoliumbased ionic liquid dissolved in water, has been established for the reversed-phase liquid chromatography separation and determination of atorvastatin, rosuvastatin, and simvastatin in pharmaceutical tablets. The use of 0.4 g (25 mM) 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate in 100 mL water mobile phase has altered the chromatographic separation mechanism of statin drugs on a C18 stationary phase at 238 nm, 25°C, and 1 mL/min. The utilization of ionic liquid as an alternative modifier in the mobile phase has led to enhancing the peak shapes, resulting in less peak tailing being observed for the investigated analytes, in comparison with conventional organic solvent. The proposed method has been validated in terms of linearity, precision, accuracy, limit of detection, and limit of quantification. The linear ranges investigated for atorvastatin, rosuvastatin, and simvastatin were 2.0–80.0, 4.0–100.0, and 12.0–120 µg/mL, respectively, with determination coefficients (R²) of 0.999, 0.999, and 0.998. Furthermore, the method demonstrated excellent accuracy and precision in pharmaceutical tablets, obtaining good recoveries of 90–113% and relative standard deviations lower than 3% for the studied analytes. The limit of detection and limit of quantification for atorvastatin, rosuvastatin, and simvastatin were determined as 1.18, 3.58, 3.07, and 9.33, 6.04, 18.32 µg/mL, respectively. The method developed in the current work could be used as a potential eco-friendly method for pharmaceutical development.