Analysis of nifedipine-acebutolol hydrochloride binary combination in tablets using UV-derivative spectroscopy, capillary gas chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography

A new colorimetric method for the determination of nifedipine tablets by derivatization using 4-carboxyl-2,6-dinitrobenzene diazonium ion

Background

A new sensitive colorimetric determination of nifedipine has been developed following azo dye formation with 4-carboxyl-2,6-dinitrobenzenediazonium ion (CDNBD). Judging from the various generic brands currently now available, this research was conceived as a means of developing an alternative cost-effective and readily adaptable method for the assay of nifedipine in tablets and for which official high performance liquid chromatographic technique may not be readily available.

Results

Nifedipine was reduced with Zn/HCl reduction system and then the diazo coupling reaction was carried out with the CDNBD reagent to generate a new azo adduct with optimal wavelength at 470 nm representing a bathochromic shift relative to nifedipine, reduced nifedipine and CDNBD reagent. Optimal temperature and time for coupling were selected as 50 oC and 15 minutes. A linear response was observed over 2.9 -14.5 µg/mL of nifedipine with a correlation coefficient of 0.9985 and the drug combined with CDNBD at a stoichiometric ratio of 2:1. The method has limits of detection and quantitation of 0.1344 µg mL-1 and 0.4074 µg mL-1 respectively. The Sandell’s sensitivity obtained is 4.673 ng/cm2 and the method was reproducible over a three day assessment. Intra- and inter-day accuracies (in terms of errors) were of the order -0.008 to 3.22 % while precisions were generally less than 3.1 % (RSD).

Conclusions

The developed spectrophotometric method is of equivalent accuracy (p > 0.05) with USP 2007 HPLC method. It has the advantages of speed, simplicity, sensitivity and more affordable instrumentation and could find application as a rapid and sensitive analytical method for nifedipine. It is the first described method by azo dye derivatization for the analysis of nifedipine in bulk samples and dosage forms.

Development of square-wave adsorptive stripping voltammetric method for determination of acebutolol in pharmaceutical formulations and biological fluids

A validated simple, rapid, sensitive and specific square-wave voltammetric technique is described for the determination of acebutolol (AC) following its accumulation onto a hanging mercury drop electrode in a Britton-Robinson universal buffer of pH 7.5. The optimal procedural conditions were: accumulation potential E_acc = - 0.8 V versus Ag/AgCl/KCl, accumulation duration t_acc = 30 s, pulse-amplitude = 70 mV, scan rate = 100 mV/s, frequency = 30 Hz, surface area of the working electrode = 0.6 mm² and the convection rate = 2000 rpm. Under these optimized conditions, the adsorptive stripping voltammetry (AdSV) peak current was proportional over the concentration range 5 × 10^-7 - 6 × 10^-6 M (r = 0.999). Recoveries for acebutolol from human plasma and urine were in the range 97-103% and 96-104% respectively. The method proved to be precise (intra-day precision expressed as %RSD in human plasma ranged from 2.9 - 3.2% and inter-day precision expressed as %RSD ranged from 3.4 - 3.8%) and accurate (intra-day accuracies expressed as % error in human urine ranged from -3.3 - 2.8% and inter-day accuracies ranged from -3.3 - 1.7%). The limit of quantitation (LOQ) and limit of detection (LOD) for acebutolol were 1.7 × 10^-7 and 5 × 10^-7 M, respectively. Possible interferences by substances usually present in the pharmaceutical formulations were investigated with a mean recovery of 101.6 ± 0.64%. Results of the developed square-wave adsorptive stripping voltammetry (SW-AdSV) method were comparable with those obtained by reference analytical method.

Spectrofluorometric determination of nicardipine, nifedipine and isradipine in pharmaceutical preparations and biological fluids

A simple and highly sensitive spectrofluorometric method was developed for the determination of some 1,4-dihydropyridine compounds namely, nicardipine, nifedipine and isradipine in pharmaceutical preparations and biological fluids. The method is based on the reduction of nicardipine, nifedipine and isradipine with Zn/HCl and measuring the fluorescence intensity obtained (λem/λex) at 460/364, 450/393 and 446/360 nm, respectively. The factors affecting the development of the fluorophore and its stability were studied and optimized. The effect of some surfactants such as β-cyclodextrin (βCD), carboxymethylcelullose (CMC), sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) and triton X-100, on the fluorescence intensity was studied. The fluorescence intensity-concentration plots of nicardipine, nifedipine and isradipine were rectilinear over the ranges 0.4–6.0, 0.2–4.0 and 0.1–9.0 μg ml−1 with detection limits of 0.0028, 0.017 and 0.016 μg ml−1, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied to commercial tablets containing the compounds; the percentage recovery agreed well with those obtained using the official methods. The method was further extended to the in vitro determination of the compounds in spiked human plasma and urine samples. A proposal of the reduction reaction pathway was postulated.

PVC Membrane Sensors for Potentiometric Determination of Acebutolol

The construction and general performance characteristics of two novelpotentiometric membrane sensors responsive to the acebutolol are described. Thesensors are based on the use of ion-association complexes of acebutolol (AC) withtetraphenylborate(TPB) (I) and phosphomolybdate(PM) (II) as exchange sites in a PVCmatrix. The sensors show a fast, stable and near- Nernstian for the mono charge cationof AC over the concentration range 1×10-3 - ~10-6 M at 25 °C over the pH range 2.0 -6.0 with cationic slope of 51.5 ± 0.5 and 53.0 ± 0.5 per concentration decade for AC-Iand AC-II sensors respectively. The lower detection limit is 6×10-6 M and 4×0-6 M withthe response time 20-30 s in the same order of both sensors. Selectivity coefficients ofAC related to a number of interfering cation and some organic compounds wereinvestigated. There are negligible interferences are caused by most of the investigatedspecies. The direct determination of 3 - 370 μg/ml of AC shows an average recovery of 99.4 and 99.5% and a mean relative standard deviation of 1 . 5 % at 100.0 μg/ml forsensor I and II respectively. The results obtained by determination of AC in tablets usingthe proposed sensors which comparable favorably with those obtained by the Britishpharmacopoeia method. In the present investigation the electrodes have been utilized asend point indicator for some precipitation titration reactions.

Spectrophotometric and spectrofluorimetric methods for analysis of acyclovir and acebutolol hydrochloride

Simple and sensitive spectrophotometric and spectrofluorimetric methods are described for analysis of acyclovir and acebutolol hydrochloride. The proposed methods are based on oxidation of the selected drugs with cerium(IV) ion in acidic medium with subsequent measurement of either the decrease in absorbance at 320nm or the fluorescence intensity of the produced cerous(III) ion at 361-363nm (excitation at 250nm). Beer's law obeyed from 2 to 8, 0.25 to 2.5microgcm-1 acyclovir, 1 to 7 and 0.25 to 2.5microgml-1 acebutolol hydrochloride, using the spectrophotometric and spectrofluorimetric method, respectively. The proposed method were successfully applied for determination of the selected drugs in their pharmaceutical preparations with good recoveries.

Spectrophotometric and spectrofluorimetric methods for analysis of tramadol, acebutolol and dothiepin in pharmaceutical preparations

Sensitive spectrophotometric and spectrofluorimetric methods are described for the determination of tramadol, acebutolol and dothiepin (dosulepin) hydrochlorides. The two methods are based on the condensation of the cited drugs with the mixed anhydrides of malonic and acetic acids at 60 degrees C for 25-40 min. The coloured condensation products are suitable for the spectrophotometric and spectrofluorimetric determination at 329-333 and 431-434 nm (excitation at 389 nm), respectively. For the spectrophotometric method, Beer's law was obeyed from 0.5 to 2.5 microg ml(-1) for tramadol, dothiepin and 5-25 microg ml(-1) for acebutolol. Using the spectrofluorimetric method linearity ranged from 0.25 to 1.25 microg ml(-1) for tramadol, dothiepin and 1-5 microg ml(-1) for acebutolol. Mean percentage recoveries for the spectrophotometric method were 99.68+/-1.00, 99.95+/-1.11 and 99.72+/-1.01 for tramadol, acebutolol and dothiepin, respectively and for the spectrofluorimetric method, recoveries were 99.5+/-0.844, 100.32+/-0.969 and 99.82+/-1.15 for the three drugs, respectively. The optimum experimental parameters for the reaction has been studied. The validity of the described procedures was assessed. Statistical analysis of the results has been carried out revealing high accuracy and good precision. The proposed methods were successfully applied for the determination of the selected drugs in their pharmaceutical preparations with good recoveries. The procedures were accurate, simple and suitable for quality control application.

Spectrofluorimetric Determination of Drugs Containing Active Methylene Group Using N1-Methyl Nicotinamide Chloride as a Fluorigenic Agent

A spectrofluorimetric method was described for the determination of drugs containing active methylene groups adjacent to carbonyl groups. The method was applied successfully to the determination of three life saving cardiovascular drugs, with narrow therapeutic indices: pentoxifylline (I), propafenone hydrochloride (II) and acebutolol hydrochloride (III), in laboratory-prepared mixtures, in commercial tablets and in plasma samples. The method involved the reaction of each of the tested drugs with N1-methyl nicotinamide chloride (NMNCl) in the presence of alkali, followed by addition of formic acid, where highly fluorescent reaction products were produced. The produced fluorescence were measured quantitatively at 472 nm (lambdaex 352 nm), 409 nm (lambdaex 310 nm) and 451 nm (lambdaex 266 nm) for (I), (II), and (III) respectively. The method was linear over concentration ranges of 10-1000 microg/ml , 0.2-12 microg/ml and 0.08-10 microg/ml in standard solutions for (I), (II), and (III) respectively. In spiked human plasma samples, calibration graphs were linear over concentration ranges of 20-1000 microg/ml, 0.2-15 microg/ml and 0.08-10 microg/ml for (I), (II), and (III) respectively. The method showed good accuracy, specificity and precision in both laboratory-prepared mixtures and spiked human plasma samples. The proposed method is simple, with low instrumentation requirements, suitable for quality control application, bioavailability and bioequivalency studies.

Assay of acebutolol in pharmaceuticals by analytical capillary isotachophoresis

Acebutolol [N-{3-acetyl-4-[(2-hydroxy-3-(isopropylamino)propoxy]phenyl} butanamide] is a cardioselective beta-blocker with a potent anti-hypertensive and antiarrhythmic effect. The optimised operational system of electrolytes for the newly developed ITP separation of acebutolol consisted of 10mM potassium acetate +10mM acetic acid (pH 4.65) as the leading electrolyte and 10mM beta-alanine with pH approximately 4 (adjusted with acetic acid) as the terminating electrolyte. The driving and detection currents were 75 and 20 microA, respectively and the analysis took approximately 13 min. Under these conditions the effective mobility of acebutolol was determined as 20.7 x 10(-9) m2 V(-1) s(-1). The calibration dependence was rectilinear in the range 0.14-1.4 mg ml(-1) of acebutolol base (r = 0.9995); relative standard deviation (RSD) values were 1.1% and 1.2% (n = 6) when determining 0.42 and 0.98 mg ml(-1) of acebutolol in a pure standard solution. The method, with the limit of detection (LOD) of 0.04 mg ml(-1) and limit of quantification (LOQ) of 0.12 mg ml(-1), was applied to the assay of acebutolol in Sectral tablets, Acecor tablets, Apo-acebutol tablets (nominal content 400 mg of acebutolol per tablet) and Acebirex tablets (nominal content 200 mg of acebutolol per tablet) with RSD = 0.7-1.7% (n = 6). No interference from any excipients present in the tablets was observed. The recoveries ranged from 98.8% to 102.4% as found by the standard addition technique.

Spectrophotometric determination of some beta-blockers in dosage forms based on complex formation with Cu(II) and Co(II)

Four sensitive and accurate spectrophotometric methods have been developed for the assay of Acebutolol Hydrochloride (ACH), Atenolol (ATE) and Propranolol Hydrochloride (PRH), which are based on the complexation of drugs with copper(II) (Cu(II)) and cobalt(II) (Co(II)). The coloured products are measured at 613, 694, 548 and 614 nm for ACH-Co(II), ATE-Cu(II), PRH-Cu(II) and PRH-Co(II) method, respectively. The optimization of various experimental conditions is described. Conformity with Beer's Law was evident over a concentration range in the of 2 x 10(-5) - 1 x 10(-2) mol/L. The molar absorptivity, detection and quantification limits are calculated. The results obtained showed good recoveries of 100.2 +/- 1.1, 100.3 +/- 1.2, 100.75 +/- 1.0 and 99.55 +/- 1.1 % with relative standard deviations of 0.410, 0.490, 0.161 and 0.140 % for ACH-Co(II), ATE-Cu(II), PRH-Cu(II) and PRH-Co(II) method, respectively. They were applied to the analysis of tablet forms of the drugs and the results were statistically compared with those obtained by official and literature methods using t- and F-tests. There were no significant difference among the mean values and precisions of the methods at 95% confidence level.

Extractive spectrophotometric methods for the determination of nifedipine in pharmaceutical formulations using bromocresol green, bromophenol blue, bromothymol blue and eriochrome black T

Four simple, sensitive and accurate spectrophotometric methods have been developed for the determination of nifedipine in pharmaceutical formulations. These methods are based on the formation of ion-pair complexes of amino derivative of the nifedipine with bromocresol green (BCG), bromophenol blue (BPB), bromothymol blue (BTB) and eriochrome black T (EBT) in acidic medium. The coloured products are extracted with chloroform and measured spectrophotometrically at 415 nm (BCG, BPB and BTB) and 520 nm (EBT). Beer's law was obeyed in the concentration range of 5.0-32.5, 4.0-37.5, 6.5-33.0 and 4.5-22.5 microg ml(-1) with molar absorptivity of 6.41 x 10(3), 4.85 x 10(3), 5.26 x 10(3) and 7.69 x 10(3) l mol(-1) cm(-1) and relative standard deviation of 0.82%, 0.72%, 0.66% and 0.68% for BCG, BPB, BTB and EBT methods, respectively. These methods have been successfully applied for the assay of drug in pharmaceutical formulations. No interference was observed from common pharmaceutical adjuvants. Statistical comparison of the results with the reference method shows excellent agreement and indicates no significant difference in accuracy and precision.

Cathodic adsorptive stripping square-wave voltammetric determination of nifedipine drug in bulk, pharmaceutical formulation and human serum

Nifedipine is a calcium-channel antagonist drug used in the management of angina pectoris and hypertension through inhibition of calcium influx. A fully validated sensitive cathodic adsorptive stripping square-wave voltammetry procedure was optimized for the determination of the drug at trace levels. The procedure was based on the reduction of the nitrophenyl group after the interfacial accumulation of the drug onto a hanging mercury drop electrode in Britton-Robinson buffer of pH 11.0. The optimal conditions of the procedure were found to be: accumulation potential=-0.9 V vs. Ag/AgCl/KCl(s)), accumulation time=30 s, scan increment=10 mV, pulse amplitude=50 mV and frequency=120 Hz. Under these conditions, a well-defined peak was obtained; its peak current showed a linear dependence on drug concentration in the range of 2x10(-9)-2x10(-7) mol L(-1) bulk nifedipine. The mean recoveries based on eight replicate measurements for 1x10(-8) and 5x10(-8) mol L(-1) bulk nifedipine solutions were 98.46+/-0.86% and 98.23+/-0.92%, respectively. A detection limit of 3.42x10(-10) mol L(-1) bulk nifedipine was achieved. The procedure was successfully applied for assay of the drug in tablets and spiked human serum with mean recoveries of 101.95+/-1.42% and 98.70+/-0.63%, respectively. The limit of detection of the drug in spiked human serum was found to be 3.90x10(-10) mol L(-1).

Spectrophotometric method for the determination of nifedipine with 4-(methylamino)phenol and potassium dichromate

A new simple, sensitive and reproducible spectrophotometric method for the determination of nifedipine in pure and dosage forms has been proposed. It is based on the reduction of nifedipine with Zn/NNH4Cl, followed by coupling with N-methyl-1,4-benzoquinoneimine--the oxidation product of 4-(methylamino)phenol, to give a chromophore which absorbed maximally at 525 nm. The experimental conditions were optimised and Beer's law was obeyed over the concentration range of 5-175 microg ml(-1). The molar absorptivity, detection limit, recovery and RSD were found to be 1.9 x 10(3) l mol(-1) cm(-1), 1.1 microg ml(-1), 99.7-100.5% and 0.3-0.8%, respectively. The proposed method was compared favourably with the official B.P. method.

First-derivative spectrophotometric and LC determination of nifedipine in Brij 96 based oil/water/oil multiple microemulsions on stability studies

A first-derivative spectrophotometric (1D(387)) method was developed for the determination of nifedipine in oil/water/oil (O/W/O) multiple microemulsions during stability studies. The UV first-derivative spectra were recorded over the wavelength range 200-600 nm (Delta lambda=16). The derivative procedure was based on the linear relationship between nifedipine concentration and the first-derivative amplitude at 387 nm. This method was validated and compared with a liquid chromatography (LC) procedure used for the quantitative analysis of the drug. Both methods showed excellent precision and accuracy with values of 2.09 and 1.82%, respectively, for the LC method and of 1.53 and 1.64%, respectively, for the 1D(387) method. The established linearity range was 5-30 microg ml(-1) with r(2) values of 0.9980 and 0.9988 for LC and first-derivative procedures, respectively. Nifedipine recoveries from spiked placebos were >95% for both methods over the linear range analysed. These methods have been successfully used for determining of nifedipine content of multiple microemulsions during stability studies, since there was no interference with its decomposition products.

First derivative spectrophotometric, TLC-densitometric, and HPLC determination of acebutolol HCL in presence of its acid-induced degradation product

Three methods are presented for the determination of acebutolol HCl in presence of its acid-induced degradation product. The first method was based on measurement of the first derivative amplitude of acebutolol HCl at 266.6 nm. The second method was based on separation of acebutolol HCl from its acid-induced degradation product followed by densitometric measurement of the spots at 230 nm. The separation was carried out on silica gel 60 F254, using ethanol-glacial acetic acid (4:1, v/v) as mobile phase. Second order polynomial equation was used for the regression line. The third method was based on high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) separation of acebutolol HCl from its acid-induced degradation product on a reversed phase, ODS column using a mobile phase of methanol-water (55:45, v/v) with UV detection at 240 nm. The first derivative spectrophotometric method was utilized to investigate the kinetics of the acid degradation process at different temperatures.

Comparative LC-MS and HPLC analyses of selected antiepileptics and beta-blocking drugs

A highly sensitive and specific assay procedure based on the combination of liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry (LC-MS) has been developed for the quantitative analysis of selected antiepileptics (carbamazepine and phenytoin) and beta-blocking drugs (acebutolol, atenolol, pindolol and propranolol) using APCI as an ionization process. The measured concentration range was 100-300 ng ml-1 for all drugs except phenytoin (0.5-1.5 micrograms ml-1). Analysis was based on direct injection of methanolic solutions of drugs into the mass spectrometer with the subsequent elution with a mobile phase consisting of methanol and 1% acetic acid solution (4:1) at a flow rate 1 ml min-1. The mass spectrometer was programmed to permit detection and determination of either fragment or molecular ions of carbamazepine, phenytoin, acebutolol, atenolol, pindolol and propranolol at m/e 194.3, 252.9, 337.2, 267.1, 249.1 and 260.1, respectively. The recorded chromatograms exhibited well-resolved peaks at retention times < 1 min. The peak area was correlated linearly to the drug concentration. Intraday precision gave relative standard deviations in the range 1.75-4.02%. Compared to HPLC, the described LC-MS was faster, more sensitive and specific. Unlike HPLC, LC-MS could be applied to analyze incompletely resolved mixtures. The absolute detection limits for LC-MS and HPLC were 0.2-0.5 and 10-25 ng, respectively. Recovery studies of the investigated compounds in pharmaceutical products using LC-MS and HPLC gave mean percentages of 97.5-102.0 and 98.4-103.3, respectively. Statistical analysis of the data using t- and F-tests showed insignificant differences between both methods for the analysis of carbamazepine, phenytoin, acebutolol and atenolol in pharmaceutical formulations. However, LC-MS gave more accurate results than HPLC for determination of pindolol in tablets. Propranolol could only be determined in tablets using LC-MS.

Application of first-derivative UV-spectrophotometry, TLC-densitometry and liquid chromatography for the simultaneous determination of mebeverine hydrochloride and sulpiride

Three methods are described for the simultaneous determination of mebeverine hydrochloride (MB) and sulpiride (SU) in combined pharmaceutical tablets. The first method depends on first-derivative ultraviolet spectrophotometry, with zero-crossing measurement method. The first derivative amplitudes at 214.2 and 221.6 nm were selected for the assay of MB and SU, respectively. Calibration graphs follow Beer's law in the range of 10-30 and 2-8 microg/ml(-1), and the linearity was satisfactory (r = 0.9999), for MB and SU, respectively. The second method was based on the application of the thin layer chromatographic separation of both drugs followed by the densitometric measurements of their spot areas. After separation on silica gel GF254 plates, using ethanol: diethyl ether: triethylamine (70:30:1 v/v) as the mobile phase, the chromatographic zones corresponding to the spots of MB and SU were scanned at 262 and 240 nm, respectively. The calibration function was established in the ranges of 4-12 microg for MB and 2-8 microg for SU. The third method was an internal standard procedure based on high performance liquid chromatographic separation of the two drugs on a reversed-phase, Bondapak CN column. The detection was done at 243 nm using buclizine hydrochloride as internal standard. All chromatographic methods showed good linearity, precision and reproducibility. No spectral or chromatographic interference from the tablet excipients were found. The proposed methods were successfully applied to the assay of commercial tablets and content uniformity test. The procedures were rapid, simple and suitable for quality control application.