Spectrophotometric analysis of some guanidino drugs by acid-dye and charge-transfer complexation methods.

Two spectrophotometric methods are described for the determination of guanethidine sulphate (I), guanfacine hydrochloride (II), guanoclor sulphate (III), guanoxan sulphate (IV) and debrisoquine sulphate (V). The first method involves ion-pair formation of the selected compounds (I-V) with bromocresol purple at pH 3.8. The yellow ion pair is extracted with chloroform and the absorbance is measured at about 415 nm. The second method is based on the reaction of the basic guanidino compounds (I, III-V) with iodine in chloroform to give molecular charge-transfer complexes with maximum absorbance at 292 and 345 nm. Beer's law was obeyed for both methods and the relative standard deviations were found to be less than 2%. The apparent molar absorptivities were found to be 2.1 x 10(4) to 6.9 x 10(4) l mol-1 cm-1 using bromocresol purple and 0.7 x 10(4) to 2.4 x 10(4) l mol-1 cm-1 using iodine. The investigated drugs were assayed in tablets. The mean percentage recoveries were found to be 99.8-100.8% by the acid-dye method and around 100.4% by the charge-transfer complexation method.

Liquid chromatographic determination of guanethidine salts and hydrochlorothiazide using electrochemical detection and ion-pair techniques.

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method with amperometric detection utilizing oxidation at the glassy carbon electrode is reported for the quantitative determination of a guanethidine (1)-hydrochlorothiazide (2) mixture. The drug mix is difficult to analyze by a single assay procedure due to large differences in the chemistry and chemical structure of the compounds. The drugs are best separated on an octadecylsilane column using 30:70 acetonitrile:0.05 M aqueous sodium dihydrogen phosphate containing 0.02 M sodium pentanesulfonate (pH 2.5) as the mobile phase at a 1.0 mL/min flow rate. Using a cell potential of +1300 mV versus Ag/AgCl and procaine hydrochloride as the internal standard, calibration curves were established for 1 monosulfate or sulfate and 2 in the 0.5-10 and 1.25-25 micrograms/mL range, respectively. Accuracy and precision of the assay are in the 1.7-6% range. The procedure is shown applicable to the analysis of a combination dosage form and is also useful for either drug in a single component dosage form.

Development of radioimmunoassay for guanethidine.

A radioimmunoassay was developed for measuring plasma concentrations of the antihypertensive agent guanethidine at the nanogram level. Guanethidine was conjugated covalently to human serum albumin by two procedures, and the degree of conjugation was determined using tracer amounts of 3H-guanethidine. Immunization of sheep ethidine, as determined in competitive binding studies using 3H-guanethidine and a dextran-coated charcoal technique for the separation of free and antibody-bound drug. The major human metabolities, an N -oxide and a ring-opened derivative, were not cross-reactive in antibody binding studies. Constituents of human plasma or serum do not appear to interfere with the assay. Preliminary results from immunoassay of plasma samples from patients receiving guanethidine indicate potential use for assessing dosage regimens and studying pharmacokinetics.