Gradient high performance liquid chromatographic assay for degradation products of adinazolam mesylate in a sustained...

A gradient high performance liquid chromatographic method was developed to determine degradation products of adinazolam mesylate in a sustained release tablet formulation. Sample preparations were chromatographed on a YMC-Basic column using a formate buffer/acetonitrile gradient with absorbance detection at 254 nm. Adinazolam mesylate was found to degrade at high relative humidity and temperature to form a major product, the 6-aminoquinoline analog, plus numerous other compounds. Five of these compounds were identified and their structures indicate that the solid-state degradation of adinazolam, in the presence of sufficient moisture, involves not only a hydrolytic mechanism, but also an oxidative mechanism. Potential process impurities were resolved from the drug and degradation products. Recovery was near 100% over the 0.5 to 10% range for the major degradate (6-aminoquinoline) and over the 0.5 to 1% range for the other analytes. The method was applied to tablet samples stressed at high relative humidity and temperature. The relative standard deviation of the assay for the 6-aminoquinoline was less than 2% and less than 13% for the minor components. Calculated mass balances (sum of adinazolam plus degradation products in the degraded tablet divided by the same sum in the undegraded tablet) were less than 100% and were dependent on the extent of degradation in the tablet. The average mass balance result obtained for samples that were an average of 9.5% degraded was 95.0 +/- 1.5%. It is possible that the decrease in mass balance with increase in percent degradation may be explained by the formation of many components at trace levels due to degradation by various permutations of hydrolytic and oxidative reaction pathways.