Development of a Validated RP-HPLC Method for the Estimation of Curcumin in Nanoemulsion and in Its Phase Solubility Studies

The study developed a simple, sensitive, and robust method for the estimation of curcumin in bulk drug form and in nanoemulsion formulation. Mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and 20 mM potassium dihydrogen orthophosphate (pH 3.0) in ratio 55:45 was selected. A flow rate of 1 mL/min and an injection volume of 20 μL was injected to develop a chromatogram using a 516 C 18 DB reversed-phase column. The detection wavelength was adjusted at 420 nm and the retention time of curcumin was found to be 9.78 ± 0.5 min. The method was validated as per ICH guidelines and can be used for the quantification of curcumin even at a very low concentration.