Differential pulse voltammetric assay of lercanidipine in tablets

Lercanidipine in ethanol-0.04M Britton-Robinson buffer (20 + 80) gives an irreversible anodic response on a glassy carbon electrode in a broad pH range (2-12) that depends on pH. This signal can be attributed to oxidation of the 1,4-dihydropyridine ring to give the corresponding pyridine derivative. For analytical purposes, differential pulse voltammetry at pH 4 was selected. Under these conditions, good values of both within- and interday reproducibility were obtained, with coefficient of variation (CV) values of 1.56 and 1.70%, respectively, for 10 successive runs. For quantitation, the calibration curve method was used for lercanidipine concentrations ranging from 1 x 10(-5) to 1 x 10(-4) M. The detection and quantitation limits were 1.39 x 10(-5) and 1.49 x 10(-5), respectively. A liquid chromatographic method with electrochemical detection was used for comparison. The voltammetric method showed good selectivity with respect to both excipients and degradation products. The recovery study exhibited a CV of 0.94% and an average recovery of 98.3%, and it was not necessary to treat the sample before the analysis. The method was successfully applied to the individual tablet assay of lercanidipine in commercial tablets.