Derivative spectrophotometric, thin layer chromatographic-densitometric and high performance liquid chromatographic determination of trifluoperazine hydrochloride in presence of its hydrogen peroxide induced-degradation product.

Three methods are presented for the determination of trifluoperazine HCl in presence of its hydrogen peroxide induced degradation product. The first method was based on measurement of first (1D) and second (2D) derivative amplitudes of trifluoperazine HCl in 0.1 N hydrochloric acid at the zero crossing point of its sulfoxide derivative, main degradation product, (at 268.4 and 262.5 nm for 1D and 2D, respectively). The second method was based on the separation of trifluoperazine HCl from its sulfoxide derivative followed by densitometric measurement of the intact drug spot at 255 nm. The separation was carried out on Merck aluminum sheet of silica gel 60 F(254), using chloroform-methanol (7:3 v/v) as mobile phase. The third method was based on high performance liquid chromatographic separation of trifluoperazine HCl from its sulfoxide derivative on reversed phase, ODS column, using a mobile phase of acetonitrile-phosphate buffer pH 4.2 (60:40 v/v) at ambient temperature. Quantitation was achieved with UV detection at 255 nm based on peak area. The first derivative spectrophotometric method was utilized to investigate the kinetics of the hydrogen peroxide degradation process at different temperatures. The apparent pseudo first-order rate constant, half life and activation energy were calculated.