Effect of sugar additives on stability of human serum albumin during vacuum foam drying and storage.

No literature on the protein stabilization of human serum albumin (HSA) by vacuum foam drying (VFD) has been reported. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of sugar-additive systems on the stability of HSA by VFD. For the assessment, HSA was formulated with sucrose and mannitol, respectively, alone or in combination with stabilizers, which were vacuum foam dried and stored at 25C. Protein content of the resulting dried formulations was analyzed by Lowry method. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis of the HSA secondary structure showed apparent protein structure-stabilizing effects of the amorphous sugar and phosphate combination during the VFD. In particular, sucrose-sodium phosphate monobasic mixture provide an interesting alternative to pure saccharide formulations due to their high glass transition temperatures and their increased ability to maintain a low melting transition temperature in the presence of small amounts of water. Inhibition of the sucrose crystallization in solutions under vacuum resulted in highly amorphous sucrose. Changes in the endothermic melting transition suggested reduced sucrose molecular mobility with increase in the sodium phosphate ratio. The addition of phosphate salts to sugar systems has several interesting features that merit its consideration in formulations to protect dehydrated labile biomaterials. In conclusion, our data suggest that sucrose and phosphate as additives seem to protect HSA during VFD better than lyophilized products and also maintain its stability in the VFD state during storage.

Spectrophotometeric Determination of Cefuroxime Axetil from bulk and in its tablet dosage form.

A simple rapid spectrophotometric method has been developed for estimation of cefuroxime axetil from bulk drug and tablet dosage form by using 1-nitroso-2-napthol and sodium hydroxide. The method is based on the formation of yellow-orange coloured complex of drug with 1-nitroso-2-napthol having absorbance maxima at 424 nm. The Beer's law is obeyed in the concentration range of 10-50 mug/ml of the drug but more precisely it obeys in the range of 10- 30 mug/ml. The slope and intercept values are 0.0101 and 0.0838, respectively. Results of analysis of this method were validated statistically and by recovery studies. The method is applied to the marketed tablet formulation. Result of analysis of tablet formulation given as percentage of label claim +/-standard deviation is 99.17+/-1.57. The precision and accuracy was examined by performing recovery studies and was found to be 99.50+/-1.82. Sandell's correlation coefficient is calculated as 0.4434. The developed method is simple, sensitive and reproducible and can be used for routine analysis of cefuroxime axetil from bulk and tablet dosage form.

RP-HPLC and Spectrophotometric Estimation of Ambroxol Hydrochloride and Cetirizine Hydrochloride in Combined Dosage Form.

Rapid, precise, accurate, specific and sensitive reverse phase liquid chromatographic and absorbance ratio spectrophotometric methods have been developed for the simultaneous analysis of ambroxol hydrochloride and cetirizine hydrochloride in their tablet formulation. The chromatographic methods were standardized using a HIQ SIL-C(18) column (250×4.6 mm i.d., 10 µm particle size) with UV detection at 229 nm and mobile phase consisting of methanol-acetonitrile-water (40:40:20, v/v/v). Ambroxol hydrochloride and cetirizine hydrochloride have absorbance maxima at 243 nm and 229 nm, respectively. The isoabsorptive wavelength for both the drugs was 236 nm. For absorbance ratio method developed, wavelengths selected were 243 nm and 236 nm. The proposed methods were successfully applied to the determination of ambroxol hydrochloride and cetirizine hydrochloride in tablets, with high percentage of recovery, good accuracy and acceptable precision. Different analytical performance parameters such as linearity, precision, accuracy, limit of detection, limit of quantitation and robustness were determined according to International Conference on Harmonization ICH Q2B guidelines. Results of analysis of the developed method were compared by performing ANOVA.