- INTRODUCTION
Loteprednol etabonate (LE), chloromethyl (11β, 17α)-17-[(ethoxycarbonyl) oxy]-11-hydroxy-3-oxoandrosta-1, 4-diene-17-carboxylate [1] (Figure 1) is a topical corticoid anti-inflammatory which is used in ophthalmic solution for the treatment of allergic conjunctivitis, uveitis, acne rosacea, keratitis, iritis, cyclitis, and selected infective conjunctivitis [2–5]. Levofloxacin (LV) is (S)-9-fluoro-2, 3-dihydro-3-methyl-10-(4-methylpiperazin-1-yl)-7-oxo-7H-pyrido [1, 2, 3-de]-1, 4-benzoxazine-6-carboxylic acid[6] (Figure 2). LV, one of the commonly used fluoroquinolone antimicrobials, is the active S-isomer isolated from the racemic ofloxacin. Its antibacterial action is twice as active as the racemate ofloxacin in vitro. Because of its excellent antibacterial activity and low frequency of adverse effects on oral administration, LV has been widely used for the treatment of infectious eye diseases [7,8]. The combination comprising LV and LE is available as ophthalmic, otic or nasal pharmaceutical preparations, which is commonly used for treatment of conjunctivitis, keratitis, blepharitis, dacrycystitis, hordeolum, corneal ulcer and ocular infections.
Literature survey reveals that various analytical methods have been reported for the estimation of LE & LV individually.
UV Spectrophotometric [9–11] Spectrofluorimetric [12,13], HPTLC [14,15],HPLC [16–20] and UPLC [21] methods have been reported for the