HPLC study of glimepiride under hydrolytic stress conditions

Glimepiride is a modern hypoglycaemic agent, which belongs to the group of sulfonylurea derivates. In this paper, simple, specific and accurate RP-HPLC method was developed in order to study decomposition of glimepiride under the hydrolytic stress conditions (acid, neutral, alkaline and oxidative). The best separation of glimepiride and its degradation products was achieved on reverse phase C18 column. The mobile phase was composed of acetonitrile-phosphate buffer (pH 3.5, 0.03 M) (48:52, v/v). Employing RP-HPLC method, five main degradation products were detected in the exposed samples. It was found that the susceptibility of glimepiride to hydrolytic decomposition increased in following manner: neutral condition < alkaline condition < acid condition < oxidative condition.