Gas-liquid chromatographic determination of isosorbide dinitrate in tablets

A gas-liquid chromatographic (GLC) method is described for determining isosorbide dinitrate (ISDN) in tablets. ISDN is extracted from tablet excipients by a 2-phase system composed of water-ethyl ether, and detected and quantitated with a flame ionization detector after separation from the internal standard (glyceryl tributyrate) on a 3% OV-210 column. Ten replicate assays on 2 different batches of tablets, each containing 5 mg ISDN, gave coefficients of variation of 1.16 and 1.48%, respectively. Comparison of results obtained for tablets containing 5, 10, and 40 mg ISDN, and for diluted isosorbide dinitrate raw material containing 25% ISDN, showed good correlation among the GLC, USP colorimetric, and USP polarographic procedures. Assay of synthetic mixtures containing ISDN, isosorbide-2-mononitrate, and isosorbide-5-mononitrate demonstrated that the GLC procedure is specific for ISDN, whereas the USP polarographic procedure is subject to interference from the mononitrates.