Robustness of an Immobilized Artificial Membrane High-Performance Liquid Chromatography Method for the Determination of Lipophilicity

Hydrophobicity is an intrinsic property that relates
to a chemical’s
tendency to partition between a polar and a nonpolar phase. Traditionally,
hydrophobicity has been described by the logarithm of the octanol–water
partition coefficient (log KOW or log P). Immobilized artificial membrane high-performance liquid
chromatography (IAM-HPLC) is an alternative method to determine hydrophobicity
that may be more biologically relevant. This paper examines the robustness
of an IAM-HPLC assay optimized using the IAM.PC.DD2 column to determine
the retention factor (log kIAM (pH 7.4)). The
method has been shown to be robust following robustness testing of
five compounds (log KOW ranging from 0.29
to 6.03) assessed across five columns (which included three batches
of stationary phase) and two HPLC systems.