New Spectrophotometric Method for Assay of Amphotericin B in Bulk and Its Pharmaceutical Formulations

 

Mohan Krishna Lokireddy1*, Jayachandra Reddy P2, M. Srinivasa Murthy1

1Vignan Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Deshmukhi, Nalgonda, Andhrapradesh, India.

2Krishna Teja Pharmacy College, Tirupati, India.

*Corresponding Author E-mail: mohanlokireddy@gmail.com

 

ABSTRACT:

Two simple and sensitive visible spectrophotometric methods (A and B) have been developed for the determination of Amphotericin B (AMP) in bulk and pharmaceutical formulations. These methods are based on the Method A was developed based on the  formation of a colored condensation reaction with p-dimethyl amino cinnamaldehyde  (PDAC) under acidic conditions (λmax 490 nm), and method B based on the oxidative coupling reaction with DCQC (2,6-dichloroquinone N-chlorimide) (λmax  530nm) . Beer’s law limits, precision and accuracy of these methods are checked by the UV reference method. The results obtained are reproducible and are statistically validated and so found to be suitable for the assay of in bulk and pharmaceutical formulations.

     

 


INTRODUCTION:

Amphotericin B is a polyene, antifungal antibiotic produced from a strain of Streptomyces nodosus. Amphotericin B is designated chemically as [1R-(1R*, 3S*, 5R*, 6R*, 9R*, 11R*, 15S*, 16R*, 17R*, 18S*, 19E, 21E, 23E, 25E, 27E, 29E, 31E, 33R*, 35S*, 36R*, 37S*)]-33-[(3-Amino-3, 6-dideoxy-β-D-mannopyranosyl) oxy]-1,3,5,6,9,11,17,37-octahydroxy-15,16,18-trimethyl-13-oxo-14,39-dioxabicy-clo[33.3.1] nonatriaconta-19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31-heptaene-36-carboxylic acid1.

 

It has a molecular weight of 924.09 and a molecular formula of C47H73NO17. The structural formula is:

 

Chemical Structure of Amphotericin B

A number of methods such as HPLC were reported for the estimation of AMP3-6. Literature survey revealed that few visible spectrophotometric methods are reported for its quantitative determination in bulk drug and pharmaceutical formulations2.

 

The aim of the present work is to provide simple and sensitive visible spectrophotometric methods for the estimation of AMP, which are basic in bulk and formulations. The efforts in this accord resulted in developing the present methods. Hence  the authors  have  made  an  attempt in  this direction  and  succeeded  in developing  three  visible spectrophotometric  methods  by  exploiting  different  structural features of the drug molecule such as the presence of an aromatic primary  amino  group  (condensation  reaction  in  method  A  or oxidation  followed by  complex  formation  in  method  B).

 

EXPERIMENTAL:

A Systronics model` 117 UV-Visible Spectrophotometer with 1 cm matched quartz cells was used for spectral and absorbance measurements in the UV and visible regions respectively.  All the reagents and chemicals were of analytical grade.

 

Standard and sample solutions:

A 1mg/ml solution was prepared by dissolving 100 mg of pure AMP in 100 mL of distilled water and this stock solution was diluted stepwise with distilled water to obtain the working standard solutions of concentrations 100 µg/mL for method A and B respectively.

 


 

PDAC solution (BDH, 0.4%, 2.63x10-3M)

:

Prepared by dissolving 400 mg of PDAC in 100 ml of CH3OH.

H2SO4 (Merck, Conc.)

:

Used as it is.

For method M25

 

 

DCQC solution         (Loba, 0.2%, 9.52x10-3M)

:

Prepared by dissolving 200 mg of DCQC in 100 ml of isopropanol

Buffer solution (pH 9.4)

:

Prepared by mixing 250 ml of 0.2M boric acid with 160 ml of 0.2M NaOH solution and diluted to 1000 ml with distilled water and pH was adjusted to 9.4

 


 

For pharmaceutical formulations:

The injection powder equivalent to 100mg of (AMP) was accurately weighed and dissolved in chloroform and filtered for methods A and B, the filtrate was evaporated to dryness and the residue was dissolved in 100 mL of distilled water to achieve a concentration of 1mg/1mL.  From which suitable dilutions were performed for methods A and B as mentioned above.

Assay:

Method A: To each one of 10 ml calibrated tubes, aliquots (0.5 – 2.5 ml, 200 mg/ml), of methanolic standard AMP solution, 2.0 ml of PDAC and 3.0 ml of conc. sulphuric acid were added successively and the total volume in each tube was brought to 9 ml by addition of methanol and placed in hot water  bath for 25 min. Then the flasks were cooled and made up to the mark with methanol and the absorbances were measured after 5 min. at 420 nm against a reagent blank prepared in a similar way.  The amount of drug in a sample was computed from Beer’s law plot.

 

Method B:  In to a series of calibrated tubes, aliquots of standard AMP solution (0.5-2.5 ml, 400mg/ml), 5.0 ml of buffer 9.4, 2.0 ml if  DCQC solution were delivered. Then the tubes were kept in a boiling water bath for 10 min. The solutions were cooled to room temperature and the volume in each tube was made upto 10 ml with distilled water. The absorbances were measured at 610 nm against a similar reagent blank. The amount of AMP was estimated from its calibrations curve.

 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

The optical characteristics such as Beer’s law limits, molar absorptivity and Sandell’s sensitivity ford these methods are given in Table-1. The precision of each method was found by measuring absorbances of six replicate samples containing known amounts of drug and the results obtained are incorporated in Table-1.  Regression analysis using the method of least squares was made to evaluate the slope (b), intercept (a) and correlation coefficient (R) for each system (Table-1). The relative standard deviation and % range of error at 95% confidence level are also given in Table-1. The accuracy of each method was ascertained by comparing the results by proposed and reference methods (UV) statistically  (Table 2).  This comparison shows that there is no significant difference between the results of proposed methods and those of the reference ones.  As an additional check of accuracy of the proposed methods, recovery experiments were performed by adding a fixed amount of the drug to the preanalysed formulations.  The amount of drug found and the   % recovery was calculated in the usual way. The similarity of the results is and obvious evidence that during the application of these methods, the excepients that are usually present in pharmaceutical formulations do not interfere in the assay of proposed methods.

 

Table-1 Optical Characteristics And Precision

Parameters

Method A

Method B

λ max (nm)

490

530

Beer’s law limit (μg/mL)

10-60

20-120

Sandell’s sensitivity

(μg/cm2/0.001 abs. unit)

0.097

0.173

Molar absorptivity  

(L mole-1cm-1)

9.495X103

5.337X103

Regression equation (Y*)

Slope (b)

0.0103

0.0057

Intercept (a)

-0.0017

-0.0005

Correlation coefficient (r)

0.9999

0.9999

% RSD

0.4118

0.3994

% Range of error

(0.05 level confidence limit)

0.344

0.334

_

Y=a+bX where X is the concentration of AMP in μg/mL and Y is the absorbance at the respective λ max.

 

CONCLUSION:

The proposed methods are applicable for the assay of drug (AMP) and have an advantage of wider range, under beer’s law limits. The proposed methods are simple, selective and reproducible and can be used in the routine determinations of AMP  in bulk samples and formulations with reasonable precession and accuracy.

 

 


TABLE-2 Assay and recovery of amphotericin B in pharmaceutical Formulations

Sample Δ

(Injection Powder)

Labeled Amount

(mg)

Amount found by reference Method

Amount obtained (mg)

Proposed method*

% Recovery by proposed methods**

A

B

A

B

AMP A

100

99.7

99.8

99.6

99.7

99.6

AMP B

100

98.6

98.2

98.4

99.5

99.6

AMP C

100

98.32

99.2

98.64

99.6

99.3

AMP D

100

99.2

98.86

99.32

99.43

99.66

*Average ± standard deviation of six determinations.

**After adding 3 different amounts of the pure labelled to the pharmaceutical formulation, each value is an average of 3 determinations.

Δ Powder from different manufactures


 

REFERENCES:

1.        The Merck Index, 12th Edn., Merck and Co Inc, New York, 1996.

2.        Nageswara Rao. L et al, A new colorimetric method for the estimation of amphotericin B, Indian Drugs, 22(10),1985, 548-9.

3.        Loredana Elena Vijan et al, Characterization of the interaction of amphotericin B with cholesteryl trifluoromethylphenyl-carbamate by UV-visible spectroscopy, Revista de Chimie (Bucharest, Romania), 59(3), 2008, 297

4.        Ilona. Gruda et al, Application of differential spectra in the ultraviolet-visible region to study the formation of amphotericin B-sterol complexes, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, Biomembranes, 602(2), 1980, 260.

5.        Wu, Wei  He et al, Determination of compound amphotericin B in eye drops by HPLC, Zhongguo Yaoxue Zazhi (Beijing, China), 43(17),2008, 1352-1353.

6.        Lin Ling Li, RP-HPLC determination of amphotericin B in Amphotec, Zixiong From Yaowu Fenxi Zazhi, 19(5),1999, 291-293.

7.        Brassinne. C et al, High-performance liquid chromatographic determination of amphotericin B in human serum, Jr. of Chromatography, Biomedical Applications, 419,1987, 401-7

8.        Granich George G et al, Sensitive high-pressure liquid chromatographic assay for amphotericin B which incorporates an internal standard, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 29(4),1986, 584-8.

9.        Bach Phillip R et al, Quantitative extraction of amphotericin B from serum and its determination by high-pressure liquid chromatography, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 26(3),1984, 314-17.

 

 

Received on 30.10.2013          Modified on 16.12.2013

Accepted on 26.12.2013     ©AandV Publications All right reserved

Res. J. Pharm. Dosage Form. and Tech. 6(1): Jan.-Mar. 2014; Page 15-17