ABSTRACT
A zero-crossing first-order derivative UV-spectrophotometric technique for monitoring the main degradation product, 6-chloro-4-(2-chlorophenyl)-2-quinazoline carboxaldehyde, was developed to study the acidic hydrolysis of lorazepam in hydrochloric acid solutions of 0.1 M. Due to the complete overlap of the spectral bands of the parent drug and the hydrolysis product (the range between their spectral maxima was only 3 nm), the graphical methods of derivative spectrophotometry were not efficient. The relative standard deviation of the proposed technique was less than 2.4% and the detection limit was 6.6x10(-8) M. Accelerated studies at higher temperatures have been employed that enable rapid prediction of the long-term stability of this drug. Pseudo-first order reaction kinetics was observed. Kinetic parameters, k(obs) and t(1/2), were calculated, which were similar to those estimated by an HPLC method developed in our laboratory.
ABSTRACT
A reversed-phase HPLC method was developed for the kinetic investigation of the acidic hydrolysis of prazepam which was carried out in hydrochloric acid solutions of 0.01, 0.1 and 1.0 M. In addition, a fourth-order derivative method for monitoring the parent compound itself was proposed and evaluated. One intermediate was observed by HPLC, which should be formed from breakage of the azomethine linkage. Further slow hydrolysis of the amide bond led to the benzophenone product that was isolated and identified. The mechanism of hydrolysis was biphasic, showing a consecutive reaction with a reversible step. Relative standard deviation was less than 2% for HPLC and less than 5% for the derivative method. Detection limits were 1.2 x 10(-7) M for the former method and 6.7 x 10(-7)M for the latter. Accelerated studies at higher temperatures were employed. Results of HPLC and fourth-order derivative methods were statistically the same.