Synthesis, characterization and enzyme inhibitory activity of new pyrazinamide iron complexes.

The present paper deals with synthesis, characterization and amylase inhibitory activity of pyrazinamide (PYZ) with iron in its both (II) and (III) oxidation states. The synthesized complexes were characterized on the basis of IR, UV, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, elemental analysis and SEM. Changes in IR data shows that PYZ form complex with octahedral geometry and binding sites are ring nitrogen and carbonyl group, wherein two sides are satisfied with two chloride ions. SEM images indicate the crystalline state and surface morphology of PYZ and its complexes. Elemental analysis proves the composition of complexes. Pyrazinamide and the complexes showed no significant effect on amylase activity but the activity was inhibited in the presence of ferrous chloride.

Facile LC-UV methods for simultaneous monitoring of ciprofloxacin and rosuvastatin in API, formulations and human serum.

An efficient, selective and cost-effective liquid chromatographic assay was developed and validated for the simultaneous quantification of ciprofloxacin and rosuvastatin in Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API), pharmaceutical formulations and in human serum. The chromatographic system consisted of mobile phase methanol-water, 90:10 v/v at pH 3.0 adjusted with o-phosphoric acid, pumped at 1.0 mL/min through a prepacked Purospher Star C18 (5 µm, 25 × 0.46 cm) column and effluent was monitored at the isosbestic point (255 nm) as well as at the λmax of individual drugs (243 and 271 nm). The method was validated over a linear concentration range of 0.25-15 µg/mL for ciprofloxacin and 0.33-20 µg/mL for rosuvastatin (r(2) ≥ 0.999). The ranges of reliable response (limits of detection and quantitation) for ciprofloxacin were 3-15 and 9-45 ng/mL and 17-29 and 52-88 ng/mL, respectively, for rosuvastatin in all API, pharmaceutical formulations and human serum. Analytical recovery from human serum was >98% and relative standard deviation (RSD) was <2. The accuracies were 97.13-102.55 and 97.41-101.31% and precisions in RSD were 0.04-1.90 and 0.02-1.23% for ciprofloxacin and rosuvastatin, respectively. No matrix interferences, ion suppression/enhancement and carry-over were detected. The total assay run time was less than 5 min. In another study, for optimum performance the detector was programmed for multiwavelength scanning at the absorption maxima of each component. Consequently, the linearity range was improved and limit of detection and quantitation values were down to 1-4 and 4-12 ng/mL for ciprofloxacin and 3-5 and 9-15 ng/mL for rosuvastatin, respectively. The validation parameters fitted ICH guidelines through the isosbestic and individual λmax approach. The small sample volume and simplicity of preparation make this method suitable for use in human serum samples, pharmaceutical formulations, quality control, drug-drug interaction studies, clinical laboratories, drug research centers and forensic medical centers.

Liquid chromatographic method for the simultaneous determination of captopril, piroxicam, and amlodipine in bulk drug, pharmaceutical formulation, and human serum by programming the detector.

A highly sensitive LC method with UV detection has been developed for the simultaneous determination of coadministered drugs captopril, piroxicam, and amlodipine in bulk drug, pharmaceutical formulations, and human serum at the isosbestic point (235 nm) and at individual λmax (220, 255, and 238 nm, respectively) by programming the detector with time to match the individual analyte's chromophore, which enhanced the sensitivity with linear range. The assay involved an isocratic elution of analytes on a Bondapak C18 (10 µm, 25 × 0.46 cm) column at ambient temperature using a mobile phase of methanol/water 80:20 at pH 2.9 and a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. Linearity was found to be 0.25-25, 0.10-6.0, and 0.20-13.0 µg/mL with correlation coefficient >0.998 and detection limits of 7.39, 3.90, and 9.38 ng/mL, respectively, whereas calibration curves for wavelength-programmed analysis were 0.10-6.0, 0.04-2.56, and 0.10-10.0 µg/mL with correlation coefficient >0.998 and detection limits of 5.79, 2.68, and 3.87 ng/mL, respectively. All the validated parameters were in the acceptable range. The recovery of drugs was 99.32-100.39 and 98.65-101.96% in pharmaceutical formulation and human serum, respectively, at the isosbestic point and at individual λmax . This method is applicable for the analysis of drugs in bulk drug, tablets, serum, and in clinical samples without interference of excipients or endogenous serum components.

RP-LC method for the simultaneous determination of gliquidone, pioglitazone hydrochloride, and atorvastatin in formulations and human serum.

The objective of this research was to develop and validate a rapid, economical, and sensitive HPLC method for quantitative determination of gliquidone, pioglitazone hydrochloride, and atorvastatin in tablets and serum. Due to drug combination of these formulations, there has been a need for a reliable quantitative method to determine these drugs in commercial samples and human serum. The chromatographic separation was carried out at ambient temperature with a mobile phase consisting of methanol-water (90 + 10, v/v), with pH adjusted to 3.50 with phosphoric acid. The pump was operated at a flow rate of 1 mL/min, and all analytes were detected at 235 nm. The method was linear over the concentration range of 5-50 microg/mL for all the drugs. The LOD of gliquidone, pioglitazone hydrochloride, and atorvastatin was 0.30, 1.30, and 0.57 microg/mL and LOQ was 0.98, 4.28, and 1.90 microg/mL, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of these drugs in commercial tablets and human serum. The established method was validated with respect to specificity, linearity, precision, accuracy, and ruggedness.

Identification of anti-inflammatory and other biological activities of 3-carboxamide, 3-carbohydrazide and ester derivatives of gatifloxacin.

BACKGROUND: Seventeen 1,4-dihydroquinoline-3-carboxamide and 1,4-dihydroquinoline-3-carbohydrazide derivatives of gatifloxacin have been prepared with a facile one step synthesis aiming to improve antibacterial, antifungal and immunological activities. The methodology allows the introduction of a variety of substituents such as amines, alcohol, phenol, amides and alkyl halides into the core structure of gatifloxacin. RESULTS: The analog N-(3-aminophenyl)-1-cyclopropyl-6-fluoro-8-methoxy-7-(3-methylpiperazin-1-yl)-4-oxo-1,4-dihydroquinoline-3-carboxamide has been identified as a potentially excellent anti-inflammatory agent, which exhibited highly potent effects on the oxidative burst activity of whole blood phagocytes (IC50 <12.5 µg mL-1), neutrophils (IC50 <0.1 µg mL-1) and macrophages phagocytes (IC50 <3.1 µg mL-1) as well as potent T-cell proliferation inhibitory effect (IC50 3.7 µg mL-1) while having comparable antibacterial activity to gatifloxacin. Another analog, 1-cyclopropyl-6-fluoro-8-methoxy-7-(3-methylpiperazin-1-yl)-4-oxo-N-phenyl-1,4-dihydroquinoline-3-carbohydrazide has tremendous T-cell proliferation inhibitory effect IC50 <3.1 µg mL-1 as compared to prednisolone, whereas, 3,5-dihydroxyphenyl1-cyclopropyl-6-fluoro-8-methoxy-7-(3-methylpiperazin-1-yl)-4-oxo-1,4-dihydroquinoline-3-carboxylate and 2-hydroxyphenyl-1-cyclopropyl-6-fluoro-8-methoxy-7-(3-methylpiperazin-1-yl)-4-oxo-1,4-dihydroquinoline-3-carboxylate envision good inhibitory activity on T-cells proliferation (IC50 6.8 & 8.8 µg mL-1 respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The structural modification at carboxylic group has resulted in improved anti-inflammatory activities with comparable antibacterial activity to gatifloxacin. We believe that C3 structural modifications of gatifloxacin are definitely important in bringing major immunomodulatory changes in these compounds.

Determination of tryptophan in raw materials, rat brain and human plasma by RP-HPLC technique.

This paper describes tryptophan (TRP) estimation in raw human plasma and rat brain by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). Estimation was carried out on a Purospher STAR C18 column using water-acetonitrile (90:10 v/v, at pH 2.7) mixture at a rate of 1.5 mL/min as mobile phase. Eluents were monitored at 273 nm by an ultraviolet detector. The method was linear (R(2) > 0.999), precise (intra-day and inter-day precision <2%) in the range of 0.25-20 µg/mL. The detection and quantification limits were 0.0144 µg/mL and 0.0437 µg/mL, respectively. In human plasma, Day 1 and Day 2 precision were 0.054-2.29% and 1.66-3.7%; whereas precisions in rat brain were 1.23-2.3% and 0.677-4.2%, respectively. The method was applied to study TRP level in human smokers and in arthritic rat brain. An efficient RP-HPLC method was developed for TRP determination that worked for clinical and research purposes.

Development and validation of new assay method for the simultaneous analysis of diltiazem, metformin, pioglitazone and rosiglitazone by RP-HPLC and its applications in pharmaceuticals and human serum.

Simple, sensitive, rapid, and accurate high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method is developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of diltiazem, metformin, pioglitazone, and rosiglitazone hydrochloride in raw materials, their pharmaceutical formulations, and human serum. In HPLC, all the above drugs were chromatographed using acetonitrile-methanol-water (30:20:50, v/v, pH 2.59 ± 0.02) as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min at ambient temperature. The separation is carried out on a Hiber, 250-4.6 RP-18 column, equipped with a UV-vis detector at 230 nm. All the antidiabetic drugs eluted at different retention time and each showed a good resolution from diltiazem. The method is successfully applied to pharmaceutical formulations because no chromatographic interferences from the tablet excipients are found. The method is found to be linear, accurate, and precise with apposite detection and quantification limit. Suitability of the method for the quantitative determination of the drugs is proven by validation in accordance with the requirements laid down by International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) guidelines. The validation results, together with statistical treatment of the data, demonstrated the reliability of this method.

Development and validation of stability-indicating HPLC method for the simultaneous determination of paracetamol, tizanidine, and diclofenac in pharmaceuticals and human serum.

A method is described for the simultaneous determination of paracetamol, tizanidine, and diclofenac in mixtures. The method was based on HPLC separation of the three drugs followed by UV detection at 254 nm. The separation was carried out on a Hypersil ODS, C18 (250 x 4.6 mm id, 10 microm particle size) column using the mobile phase aqueous 0.2% ammonium carbonate-methanol (60 + 40, v/v) at a flow rate of 1 mL/min. The linear regression analysis data were used for the regression curve in the range of 170-10 000 ng/mL for paracetamol, 120-10 000 ng/mL for tizanidine, and 20-10 000 ng/mL for diclofenac. No chromatographic interference from tablet excipients was found. In order to check the selectivity of the proposed method, degradation studies were carried out using hydrolysis (acid, basic, and neutral), thermolysis, and oxidation. The developed method, after being validated in terms of precision, robustness, recovery, LOD, and LOQ, was successively applied to the analysis of pharmaceutical formulations and human serum.

Validated RP-HPLC method for determination of permethrin in bulk and topical preparations using UV-vis detector.

An isocratic reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the estimation of permethrin in raw materials and pharmaceutical topical preparations has been devised and validated. The chromatographic analysis was performed on a 5 µm particle C-18 Nucleosil (Macherey-Nagel, Germany) column (250 × 4.6 mm). Mobile phase consisted of methanol and 0.025 mM Phosphoric acid (85:15 v/v) at a flow rate of 1.5 mL/min. UV detection was performed at 272 nm and peaks were identified with retention times as compared with standards. The limit of detection was 1.782 µg/mL, while limit of quantitation was 48.0 µg/mL. The calibration was linear in a concentration range of 48.0-5000 µg/mL with correlation coefficient of 0.999978. Regression equation was absorbance =2833.23 × concentration(µg/mL) + 19.1045 with variance of the response variable, S(yx)(2), calculated to be 1.75328 (six degrees of freedom). The method was validated as per ICH guidelines and USP requirements and found advantageous for the routine analysis of the drug in pharmaceutical formulations and in pharmaceutical investigations involving permethrin.

Simultaneous determination of gliquidone, pioglitazone hydrochloride, and verapamil in formulation and human serum by RP-HPLC.

In the present study, a reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography method was developed, validated and applied for the simultaneous determination of gliquidone, pioglitazone hydrochloride and verapamil in tablets and human serum. Chromatographic separation was achieved on a C18 column (5 µm, 25 × 0.46 cm) with a mobile phase consisting of methanol-water-acetonitrile (80:10:10 v/v/v) with a flow rate of 0.7 mL/min and pH adjusted to 3.50 with phosphoric acid at 230 nm. Glibenclamide was used as internal standard. The experimentally derived limit of detection and limit of quantitation were determined to be 0.24, 0.93, 0.40, and 0.80, 3.11, 1.36 µg/mL for gliquidone, pioglitazone, and verapamil, respectively. There were no interfering peaks due to the excipients present in the pharmaceutical tablets. Thus, the proposed method is simple and suitable for the simultaneous analysis of active ingredients in dosage forms and human serum.

Synthesis, characterization and biological activity of a series of carboxamide derivatives of ofloxacin.

The present study was designed to help develop new agents with better antimicrobial profiles. Specifically, we focused on modification of the basic structure of ofloxacin by introducing new functionality at its C3 position. For this purpose, the carboxylic group at the C3 position of ofloxacin was replaced by an amide group through an ester aminolysis reaction. The structure of these derivatives was established by various analytical techniques i.e., IR, (1)H-NMR, (13)C-NMR CHNS elemental analysis and mass spectrometry. The antibacterial activity of ofloxacin and its derivatives against ten different Gram-positive and Gram-negative microorganisms was studied using a disk susceptibility method. These compounds were further tested for their activity against various fungi and compared to ofloxacin. The synthesized compounds showed diverse antimicrobial profiles. Among them, a few compounds possessed a comparable or better activity in comparison to the reference drug.

Simultaneous determination of metformin, cimetidine, famotidine, and ranitidine in human serum and dosage formulations using HPLC with UV detection.

A new, simple, and reliable reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method has been developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of metformin (Metf), cimetidine (Cimt), famotidine (Famt), and ranitidine (Rant) in their synthetic mixtures and tablet formulations. These drugs were separated on a Purospher Star RP18 endcapped (250 mm × 4.6 mm i.d.) column packed with 5-µm particles. The mobile phase, optimized through an experimental design, consisted of methanol-water-triethylamine (20:80:0.05), whose pH was adjusted to 3.0 with phosphoric acid (85%) pumped at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. UV detection was performed at 229 nm. The method was validated in the sample concentration range of 5-25 µg/mL for all the drugs, where it demonstrated good linearity with r = 0.9998, 0.9979, 0.9997, and 0.9987 (n = 6), respectively. For independent 100% level samples, the intra-day and inter-day precision was in the range i.e. < 2.0 for all the drugs. The method demonstrated robustness, resisting to small deliberate changes in pH, flow rate, and composition (organic:aqueous ratio) of the mobile phase. The limit of detection values were 0.071, 0.116, 0.134, and 0.110 µg/mL, while the limit of quantitation were 0.217, 0.352, 0.405, and 0.368 µg/mL for Metf, Cimt, Famt, and Rant, respectively. The applicability of the method was demonstrated by determining the drug content in pharmaceutical formulations, where it exhibited good performance.

Simultaneous determination of piracetam and its four impurities by RP-HPLC with UV detection.

A simple and rapid high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the separation and determination of piracetam and its four impurities, 2-oxopyrrolidin-1-yl)acetic acid, pyrrolidin-2-one, methyl (2-oxopyrrolidin-1-yl)acetate, and ethyl (2-oxopyrrolidin-1-yl)acetate, was developed. The separation was achieved on a reversed-phase C(18) Nucleosil column (25 cm x 0.46 cm, 10 microm). The mobile phase is composed of an aqueous solution containing 0.2 g/L of triethyl amine-acetonitrile (85:15, v/v). The pH of the mobile phase was adjusted to 6.5 with phosphoric acid at a flow rate of 1 mL/min at ambient temperature and UV detection at 205 nm. The developed method was found to give good separation between the pure drug and its four related substance. The polynomial regression data for the calibration plots showed good linear relationship in the concentration range of 50-10,000 ng/mL, 25-10,000 ng/mL, 45-10,000 ng/mL, 34-10,000 ng/mL, and 55-10,000 ng/mL, respectively, with r(2) = 0.9999. The method was validated for precision, accuracy, ruggedness, and recovery. The minimum quantifiable amounts were found to be 50 ng/mL of piracetam, 25 ng/mL of 2-oxopyrrolidin-1-yl)acetic acid, 45 ng/mL of pyrrolidin-2-one, 34 ng/mL of methyl (2-oxopyrrolidin-1-yl)acetate, and 55 ng/mL of ethyl (2-oxopyrrolidin-1-yl)acetate. Statistical analysis proves that the method is reproducible and selective for the estimation of piracetam as well as its related substance. As the method could effectively separate the drug from the related substances, it can be employed as a stability-indicating one. The proposed method shows high efficiency, allowing the separation of the main component piracetam from other impurities.

Simultaneous determination of gliquidone, fexofenadine, buclizine, and levocetirizine in dosage formulation and human serum by RP-HPLC.

In the present paper, a simultaneous method has been developed and validated for estimation of gliquidone in the presence of H(1)-receptor antagonists (fexofenadine hydrochloride, buclizine hydrochloride, and levocetirizine dihydrochloride) using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic technique. A good chromatographic separation between these drugs was achieved using a mobile phase containing methanol-water (80:20 v/v) at pH 3.5 with a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min; and detection was performed at 230 nm with a UV detector. Validation of the method was performed in terms of linearity, accuracy, precision, and limit of detection and quantification. The linearity of the calibration curves for gliquidone, fexofenadine hydrochloride, buclizine hydrochloride, and levocetirizine dihydrochloride were found to be 0.338-50 microg/mL (r = 0.9964), 5-50 microg/mL (r = 0.9956), 0.325-50 microg/mL (r = 0.9967), and 0.553-50 microg/mL (r = 0.9950), respectively. There was no significant difference between the amount of drug spiked in serum and the amount recovered, and serum did not interfere in simultaneous estimation. Thus, the proposed method is suitable for the simultaneous analysis of active ingredients in tablet dosage forms and human serum.

Spectrophotometric determination of gabapentin in pharmaceutical formulations using ninhydrin and pi-acceptors.

Simple, rapid and sensitive spectrophotometric procedures are developed for the analysis of gabapentin in pure form as well as in their pharmaceutical formulations. The methods are based on the reaction of gabapentin as n-electron donor with ninhydrin and pi-acceptors namely, 2,3,5,6-tetrachloro-1,4-benzoquinone, chloranilic acid, 2,3-dichloro-5,6-dicyano-1,4-benzoquinone, tetracyanoethylene and 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane. The obtained complexes were measured at 568, 230, 314, 304, 335 and 439 nm for ninhydrin, chloranil, Chloranilic acid, DDQ, TCNE and TCNQ respectively. The proposed procedures could be successfully applied to the determination of gabepentin with good recovery; percent ranged from 99.3 to 100.7 The association constants and free energy changes using Benesi-Hildebrand plots are also studied.

Cleaning validation of ofloxacin on pharmaceutical manufacturing equipment and validation of desired HPLC method.

Inadequate cleaning of a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant or inadequate purging of the individual pieces of equipment used in multi-product manufacturing or equipment not dedicated to individual products may lead to contamination of the next batch of pharmaceutics manufactured using the same equipment. Challenges for cleaning validation are encountered especially when developing sensitive analytical methods capable of detecting traces of active pharmaceutical ingredients that are likely to remain on the surface of the pharmaceutical equipment after cleaning. A method's inability to detect some residuals could mean that either the method is not sensitive enough to the residue in question or the sampling procedure is inadequate. A sensitive and reproducible reversed-phase, high-performance liquid chromatographic method was developed for the determination of ofloxacin in swab samples. The method for determining ofloxacin residues on manufacturing equipment surfaces was validated in regard to precision, linearity, accuracy, specificity, limit of quantification, and percent recovery from the equipment surface, as well as the stability of a potential contaminant in a cleaning validation process. The active compound was selectively quantified in a sample matrix and swab material in amounts as low as 0.55 ng/mL. The swabbing procedure using cotton swabs was validated. A mean recovery from stainless steel plate of close to 85% was obtained. Chromatography was carried out on a pre-packed Merck (Dermstadt, Germany) Lichrospher model 100 Rp-18 (5.0 microm, 250 mm X 4.0 mm) column using a mixture of sodium lauryl sulfate (0.024% aqueous solution), acetonitrile, and glacial acetic acid (500:480:20,v/v) as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 1.5 mL/min with a column temperature of 35 degrees C and 294 nm detection. The assay was linear over the concentration range of 2 ng/mL to 2000 ng/mL (R approximately 0.99998). The method was validated for accuracy and precision. The stability of ofloxacin in the swab samples was also assessed. In regard to the 10-ppm acceptance criteria in the succeeding batch, the calculated limit was 437 microg/cm2 while according to the 0.1% dosing approach the calculated value was 116 microg/cm2. The calculated recovery values from swab samples were below these acceptable limits during three consecutive cleaning trials. This confirms that the desired level of cleanliness is achieved using the current cleaning procedures, which were consequently validated.

Simultaneous determination of olmesartan medoxomil and irbesartan and hydrochlorothiazide in pharmaceutical formulations and human serum using high performance liquid chromatography.

A simple, selective, sensitive, precise, simultaneous high performance liquid chromatographic analysis of serum samples and commercial tablet formulation containing hydrochlorothiazide, olmesartan medoxomil and irbesartan are reported. Good chromatographic separation was achieved using a micro-Bondapak, C18 column (15 cm x 4.6 mm, 5 microm), and a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile-0.2% acetic acid aqueous solution (50:50, v/v) at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The ultraviolet detector was set at a wavelength of 260 nm. Hydrochlorothiazide, olmesartan medoxomil, and irbesartan were eluted at 1.2, 3.8, and 4.4 min, respectively. No extraneous materials were found to interfere. The method uses protein precipitation with acetonitrile for the preparation of serum sample. The linear ranges for hydrochlorothiazide, olmesartan medoxomil, and irbesartan were 6.25-18.75, 20-60, and 75-225 ng/mL, respectively. The recoveries of hydrochlorothiazide, olmesartan medoxomil, and irbesartan in spiked samples were all greater than 98%, and their relative standard deviations were less than 2.0%. The limits of detection were 1, 2, and 2 ng/mL for hydrochlorothiazide, olmesartan medoxomil, and irbesartan, respectively, and the limits of quantification were 3 ng/mL, which allow their determination at the expected serum concentration levels.

In vitro hypoglycemic activity of methanolic extract of some indigenous plants.

Pakistan is rich in medicinally important plants and has ancient herbal treatment methods. Present work is based on the study of six indigenous plants Eugenia jambolana, Lawsonia inermis, Momordica charantia, Morus alba, Nigella sativa and Trigonella foenum graecum which show the inhibitory effect of glucose utilization, and are in use as hypoglycemic agents of varying degree in traditional system of medicine. The glucose uptake activity of (methanolic extracts) of these plants was tested in vitro and glucose was estimated by glucose oxidase method. The results in three different media revealed that, hypoglycemic activity is more prominent in neutral and basic media as compared to acidic medium.

A validated method for the analysis of diltiazem in raw materials and pharmaceutical formulations by rp-HPLC.

A simple, selective and rapid reversed phase high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method for the analysis of diltiazem (DTZ) in bulk material and pharmaceutical formulations has been developed and validated. Sample was resolved on a Hypersil, ODS, C-18(150x4.6 mm, 5 micron) column. The mobile phase consisted of methanol-water (80:20 v/v, pH 3.1 adjusted with phosphoric acid) was delivered at a flow rate of 0.5 ml/min at ambient temperature and the retention time was about 2.6 minutes with symmetrical peaks. Studies were performed on an HPLC system equipped with a UV/visible detector at 236 nm. Flurbiprofen (FLR) was used as an internal standard. The developed method gave good resolution between diltiazem and internal standard. The method is specific to DTZ and able to resolve the drug peak from formulation excepients. The calibration curve was linear over the concentration range of 0.195-50 mg/ml (R2=0.999). The proposed method is accurate (the accuracy results were 94.1-99.39 for diltiazem recoveries), precise (The intraday and interday precision CVs were 0.035-2.2 %) and linear within the desired range. The lower limits of detection for DTZ was found to be 0.0184 microg/ml and the quantitation limit was about 0.056 microg/ml and therefore could be employed as a more convenient and efficient option for the analysis of diltiazem and its related compounds in drug substance and formulations.

In vitro activity of cefadroxil, cephalexin, cefatrizine and cefpirome in presence of essential and trace elements.

Evidences supporting the introduction of metallic elements in several biological processes are rapidly accumulating. Likewise, many drugs possess modified toxicological and pharmacological properties when in the form of metal complexes. In order to ascertain the role of various essential and trace element complexation on the antibacterial activity of various cephalosporins, the synergistic or antagonistic behavior of cefadroxil, cephalexin, cefatrizine and cefpirome in presence of essential and trace elements has been studied and compared with the parent drug. The essential and trace elements comprised of magnesium, calcium, chromium, manganese, ferric, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc and cadmium in the form of their chloride. These studies were carried out by observing the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) using agar dilution method and compared with the MIC'S of the standard cephalosporins against various species of Gram (+) and Gram (-) microorganisms such as Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Streptococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Proteus vulgaris, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhi and Shigella dysenteriae. Different dilutions of cephalosporins and salts of essential and trace elements were used in these studies. The ratio of the drug and metal salts was 1:1 and the reactions were carried out at two different temperatures as 37 degrees C and 60 degrees C in order to study the complex formation. The aim of our study was on one hand to evaluate the changes in microbiological activity of the standard cephalosporins after in vitro metal interactions to study the synergetic or antagonistic behavior of the later through the difference in MICs values of these cephalosporins and on the other hand to access the bioassay directed extent of drug metal complexations. Our investigation reveal that interaction of above cephalosporins with essential and trace elements cause antagonistic effect in many cases which was shown by decrease in antimicrobial activity of cephalosporins and MIC values were increased.