Spectrophotometric and spectrodensitometric determination of Clopidogrel Bisulfate with kinetic study of its alkaline degradation

Four sensitive, selective and precise stability-indicating methods for the determination of Clopidogrel Bisulfate (CLP) in presence of its alkaline degradate and in pharmaceutical formulations were developed and validated. Method A is a second derivative (D²) spectrophotometric one, which allows the determination of CLP in presence of its alkaline degradate at 219.6, 270.6, 274.2 and 278.4 nm (corresponding to zero-crossing of the degradate) over a concentration range of 4-37 μg mL⁻¹ with mean percentage recoveries 99.81 ± 0.893, 99.72 ± 0.668, 99.88 ± 0.526 and 100.46 ± 0.646, respectively. CLP can be determined in the presence of up to 65% of its degradate. D² method was used to study the kinetic of CLP alkaline degradation that was found to follow a first-order reaction. The t_1/2 was 6.42 h while K (reaction rate constant) was 0.1080 mol/h. Method B is the first derivative of the ratio spectra (DD¹) spectrophotometric method, by measuring the peak amplitude at 217.6 and 229.4 nm using acetonitrile and CLP can be determined in the presence of up to 70% of its degradate. The linearity range was 5-38 μg mL⁻¹ with mean percentage recoveries 99.88 ± 0.909 and 99.70 ± 0.952, respectively. Method C based on the determination of CLP by the bivariate calibration depending on simple mathematic algorithm which provides simplicity and rapidity. The method depends on quantitative evaluation of the absorbance at 210 and 225 nm over a concentration range 5-38 μg mL⁻¹ with mean percentage recovery 99.27 ± 1.115. CLP can be determined in the presence of up to 70% of its degradate. Method D is a TLC-densitometric one, where CLP was separated from its degradate on silica gel plates using hexane:methanol:ethyl acetate (8.7:1:0.3, v/v/v) as a developing system. This method depends on quantitative densitometric evaluation of thin layer chromatogram of CLP at 248 nm over a concentration range of 0.6-3 μg/band with mean percentage recovery 99.97 ± 1.161. CLP can be determined in the presence of up to 90% of its alkaline degradate. The selectivity of the proposed methods was checked using laboratory prepared mixtures. The proposed methods have been successfully applied to the analysis of CLP in pharmaceutical dosage forms without interference from other dosage form additives and the results were statistically compared with the official method.