Establishment of high-performance liquid chromatography-photodiode array method for 43 weight loss agents and effect of basic environment on bisacodyl degradation.

RATIONALE: The demand for weight loss products is increasing as slimness emerges as the new aesthetic standard and people's desire to achieve it increases. In addition, the distribution and sale of products containing illegal ingredients, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals for which safety is not guaranteed and that cannot be used as foods or dietary supplements are increasing. Thus, the development of an analytical method that could monitor these illegal products is required. METHODS: A high-performance liquid chromatography-photodiode array method capable of rapid and reliable qualitative and quantitative analyses of 43 weight loss agents was established and validated. RESULTS: The process involved dividing analytes into three groups for rapid analysis; when bisacodyl was mixed with chlorocyclopentylsibutramine, it decomposed into its metabolites: monoacetyl bisacodyl and bis-(p-hydroxypheny)-pyridyl-2-methane. This decomposition was due to NaOH that was used to prepare the chlorocyclopentylsibutramine standard solution. Bisacodyl did not degrade when mixed with neutralized chlorocyclopentylsibutramine, whereas when NaOH was added, it rapidly degraded. We identified the bisacodyl degradation products using liquid chromatography-quadrupole-Orbitrap/mass spectrometry. MS2 spectra with proposed structures of fragment peaks were also obtained. CONCLUSIONS: The developed method could be used to regulate slimming products that threaten public health, and knowledge of bisacodyl degradation will be used as the basis for developing an analytic method.

Development and validation of three stability-indicating methods for determination of bisacodyl in pure form and pharmaceutical preparations.

Three new, simple, sensitive, and accurate stability-indicating methods were developed for quantitative determination of bisacodyl in the presence of its degradation products, monoacetyl bisacodyl (I) and desacetyl bisacodyl (II), in enteric coated tablets, suppositories, and raw material. The first is a spectrodensitometric method in which the drug is separated from I and II on silica gel plates using chloroform-acetone (9 + 1, v/v) as the mobile phase with ultraviolet detection of the separated bands at 223 nm over a concentration range of 0.2-1.4 microg/band for bisacodyl with mean recovery 100.35 +/- 1.923%. The second method is fourth derivative D4 spectrophotometry, which allows determination of bisacodyl in the presence of its degradation products in raw material at 223 nm using acetonitrile as the solvent with adherence to Beer's law over the concentration range 2-18 microg/mL with mean recovery 99.77+/-1.056%. In the third method, the spectrophotometric data of bisacodyl, I, and II using absolute ethanol as solvent were processed by 3 chemometric techniques: classical least-squares, principal component regression, and partial least-squares. A training set consisting of 15 mixtures containing different ratios of bisacodyl, I, and II was used for construction of the 3 models. A validation set consisting of 6 mixtures was used to validate the prediction ability of the suggested models. The 3 chemometric methods were applicable over a concentration range between 2-14microg/mL for bisacodyl with mean recovery of 99.97+/-0.865, 100.01 +/- 0.749, and 99.97 +/- 0.616% for the 3 models, respectively. The proposed methods were checked using laboratory-prepared mixtures and were successfully applied to the analysis of raw material and pharmaceutical formulations containing bisacodyl, except for the second method that applies only for raw material. The validity of the suggested procedures was further assessed by applying the standard addition technique; the recoveries obtained were in accordance with those given by the reference method.

Factitious diarrhea induced by stimulant laxatives: accuracy of diagnosis by a clinical reference laboratory using thin layer chromatography.

BACKGROUND: Surreptitious ingestion of laxatives can lead to serious factitious diseases that are difficult to diagnose. Most cases involve ingestion of bisacodyl or senna. Thin layer chromatography (TLC) of urine or stool is the only commercially available test for these laxatives. Such testing is considered highly reliable, but its accuracy in clinical practice is unknown. Our aim was to evaluate the reliability of TLC laxative testing by a clinical reference laboratory in the United States. METHODS: Diarrhea was induced in healthy volunteers by ingestion of bisacodyl, senna, or a control laxative (n = 11 for each laxative group). Samples of urine and diarrheal stool were sent in blinded fashion to the clinical reference laboratory for bisacodyl and senna analysis. RESULTS: TLC testing for bisacodyl-induced diarrhea revealed a sensitivity of 73% and specificity of 91% when urine was tested and sensitivity and specificity of 91% and 96%, respectively, when stool was analyzed. When diarrhea was induced by senna, the TLC assay for senna failed to identify even a single urine or stool specimen as positive (zero% sensitivity). CONCLUSIONS: Considering the expected prevalence of surreptitious laxative abuse in patients with chronic idiopathic diarrhea (2.4%-25%, depending on the clinical setting), TLC of urine or stool for bisacodyl by this reference laboratory would often produce misleading results, and testing for senna would have no clinical value. The major problems are false-positive tests for bisacodyl and false-negative tests for senna.

High-performance liquid chromatographic determination of bisacodyl in pharmaceutical dosage forms marketed in Australia.

HPLC methods have been developed for the assay of bisacodyl in various pharmaceutical forms. The extraction procedures are simple and the HPLC conditions separate bisacodyl from its degradation products. The chromatography was performed using a Merck LiChrospher RP-select B column, a mobile phase of 55% acetonitrile/45% 0.05 M KH2PO4 and detection by UV at 214 nm.

Reverse phase liquid chromatographic determination of bisacodyl in dosage forms.

A method is described for the determination of bisacodyl in enteric-coated tablets and suppositories by liquid chromatography (LC). The method will also determine the hydrolysis degradation products monoacetylbisacodyl and desacetylbisacodyl. The sample is dissolved in 2-propanol, and the extract is diluted with the mobile phase and injected into a liquid chromatograph fitted with a mu Bondapak C18 column and an ultraviolet detector set at 254 nm. The column is eluted with methanol-acetonitrile-0.01M citric acid (25 + 25 + 50). The pooled mean recovery value for bisacodyl from commercial enteric-coated tablets and suppositories was 99.7% with a pooled coefficient of variation (CV) of 0.72%. For content uniformity assays, the CVs were 0.7 and 1.0% for groups of 10 individual commercial suppositories and tablets, respectively. Differences between assay values by the LC and USP XX methods were 0.2% of declared for enteric-coated tablets (n = 5) and 1.0% of declared for suppositories (n = 2). The LC method can determine as little as 0.015 microgram of the monoacetyl or desacetyl degradation product.

Bis-(p-hydroxyphenyl)-pyridyl-2-methane: The common laxative principle of Bisacodyl and sodium picosulfate.

After both oral and rectal administration in humans (4,4'-diacetoxy-diphenyl)-(pyridyl-2)-methane (bisacodyl, Dulcolax) and 4,4'-(2-pyridyl-methylene)-diphenol-disulfuric acid semiester disodium (sodium picosulfate, Laxoberal) are hydrolyzed to bis-(p-hydroxyphenyl)-pyridyl-2-methane (BHPM). In both cases BHPM is responsible for the laxative action. Experiments in rats and guinea pigs have shown that the hydrolysis of picosulfate, in contrast to that of bisacodyl, is attributable to the microorganisms of the intestinal flora.