High-performance liquid chromatographic stability indicating assay method of tianeptine sodium with simultaneous fluorescence and UV detection

The purpose of this work is to develop a sensitive, selective, and validated stability-indicating HPLC assay of tianeptine (TIA) in bulk drug and tablet form. TIA is subjected to different stress conditions, including UV-light, oxidation, acid base-base hydrolysis, and temperature. TIA and its possible degradation products are analyzed on Agilent-Zorbax-XDB-C18 column using gradient elution with acetonitrile and 0.02M sodium acetate (pH 4.2). The samples are monitored simultaneously with photo-diode array at 254 nm and fluoroscence detector set to 350 nm (ex) and 425 nm (em). TIA is integrated from its UV-chromatogram, and the photodecomposition products are integrated from the fluoroscence-chromatogram. TIA and its photodecomposition products are separated by TLC using ethyl acetate-n-hexane-glacial acetic acid-methanol (10.0:14.0:0.2:1.0, v/v) as developing system. One potential photodegradation product is detected by fluoroscence in TIA-tablet form and separated by TLC. The linear range of TIA is between 0.5 to 50 microg/injection with limits of quantitation and detection values of 30 and 8 ng/injection, respectively. The inter-assay percentage of deviation is not more than 0.03%, and the day-to-day variation is not more than 0.1%.