High-performance liquid chromatographic assay of quinapril in tablets

The Evaluation of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors in Renal Elimination with Selected Molecular Descriptors

Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors modulate the function of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, and they are commonly prescribed antihypertensive drugs especially in patients with renal failure. In this study, the relationships between several molecular properties of eight ACE inhibitors (enalapril, quinapril, fosinopril, ramipril, benazepril, perindopril, moexipril, trandolapril) and their renal elimination data, from relevant literature, were investigated. The ’molecular descriptors of the ACE inhibitors, which included aqueous solubility data (logS); an electronic descriptor, polar surface area (PSA);, a constitutional parameter, molecular mass (Mr); and a geometric descriptor, volume value (Vol), as well as lipophilicity descriptors (logP values), were calculated using different software packages. Simple linear regression analysis showed the best correlation between renal elimination data and lipophilicity descriptor AClogP values (R2 = 0.5742). In the next stage of the study, multiple linear regression was applied to assess a higher correlation between the ACE inhibitors’ renal elimination data and lipophilicity, AClogP, with one additional descriptor as an independent variable. Good correlations were established between renal elimination data from the literature and the AClogP lipophilicity descriptor using the constitutional parameter (molecular mass (R2 = 0.7425)) or the geometric descriptor (volume value (R2 = 0.7224)) as an independent variable. The application of computed molecular descriptors in evaluating drug elimination is of great importance in drug research.

Square wave voltammetric determination of the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors cilazapril, quinapril and ramipril in pharmaceutical formulations

The angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors cilazapril, quinapril and ramipril are reduced at a hanging mercury drop electrode in the pH range 3.5-13 using Britton-Robinson buffers as supporting electrolyte and KCl as ionic medium. Square wave voltammetry has proved to be the most suitable electroanalytical technique for the quantitative voltammetric determination of these antihypertensive drugs. Optimisation of the chemical and instrumental variables was carried out. Analyses were performed in 0.02 M borate buffer at pH 9.5 and 0.5 M KCl as ionic medium, using a pulse amplitude of 50 mV and a frequency of 150 Hz. A linear relationship between peak current and concentration was found in the interval 0.5-8 microg/ml for cilazapril and up to 6 microg/ml for quinapril and ramipril, allowing the direct determination of their pharmaceutical formulations alone or mixed with hydrochlorothiazide. Good accuracy and repeatativity were obtained.