Gas chromatographic separation and quantitative estimation of barbiturate mixtures in solid dosage forms

A gas chromatographic method has been described for the analysis of mixed barbiturates in solid dosage forms. Analysis on a 10% SE-30 column gave good separations for butabarbital, amobarbital, secobarbital, pentobarbital, and/or phenobarbital; amobarbital is not separated adequately from pentobarbital. An internal standard, mephobarbital, is used to minimize injection errors. The method gives both good quantitative and qualitative results on the barbiturates investigated. Two synthetic tablet mixtures were analyzed by this procedure and recoveries were 98—103%. It is recommended that the method be subjected to collaborative study.