A simple and easy liquid chromatographic procedure was developed for the separation and analysis of α,β-arteether. The developed method uses a reversed-phase Luna C18 column (250 mm × 4.6 mm), a hybrid micellar mobile phase containing 0.15 M SDS–6% (v/v) butanol–0.01 M phosphate buffered at pH 7, and detection at 218 nm. Under these conditions, the analysis time was less than 6 min. Validation studies were performed according to the International Conference on Harmonisation guideline, including linearity (R²>0.9998) in the 0.1–50 μg/mL range, accuracy, repeatability, intermediate precision, and robustness, which were found satisfactory. Method was applied to the determination of α,β-arteether in different pharmaceutical preparations and wrapper/label free ampoules obtaining recoveries in the 97.7–102.2% range. Compared to other chromatographic techniques, micellar liquid chromatography has the advantages of avoiding sample extraction from matrices, thus reducing the global analysis time and environmental toxicity.

Acknowledgements: This work was supported by Projects P1.1B2012-36 of UJI, Res. Nº 162/12 of Secretaria de Ciencia y Técnica of UNC,AGL2010-22182-C04-01-03/ALI of FEDER, ACOMP/2013/176 of GV, and CTQ2011-28079-CO3-01 of MICINN.