Stability-indicating methods for determining omeprazole and octylonium bromide in the presence of their degradation products.

Four stability-indicating assays were developed for determining omeprazole and octylonium bromide. Omeprazole is photodegraded and estimated in the presence of its degradation products sulphenamide (I) and benzimidazole sulphide (II) by 2 methods. The first method depends on use of first-, second-, and third-derivative spectrophotometry at 290.4, 320.6, and 311.6 nm, respectively. The second method is based on applying the charge-transfer technique with chloranil as pi acceptor to form a complex with omeprazole, the absorbance of which is measured at 377 nm. These methods determine omeprazole in concentration ranges of 5-20 micrograms/mL by first-, second-, and third-derivative spectrophotometry and 10-50 micrograms/mL by charge-transfer complexation with mean accuracies of 99.92 +/- 0.73, 99.71 +/- 1.02, 99.64 +/- 0.66, and 100.24 +/- 0.81%, respectively. Octylonium bromide is determined by a densitometric method using thin-layer chromatography in the presence of its degradation products p-[2-(n-octyoxy)benzoyl]-aminobenzoic acid (III) and diethyl-(2-hydroxyethyl)-methyl ammonium bromide (IV) without any interferences. Alternatively, octylonium bromide is evaluated by a colorimetric method using the acid dye rose bengal. The ion pair formed is extracted in chloroform at pH 4, and its absorbance is measured at 562 nm. These methods determine octylonium bromide in the presence of its degradation products in concentration ranges of 0.1-0.5 microgram/microL by densitometry and 4.5-22.5 micrograms/mL by colorimetry, with mean accuracies of 100.21 +/- 0.93 and 99.73 +/- 0.89%, respectively. The suggested methods were used to determine drugs in bulk powder, laboratory-prepared mixtures, and pharmaceutical dosage forms. Results were compared statistically with those obtained with reference methods.