First-derivative UV spectrophotometric and high-performance liquid chromatographic analysis of some thiazide diuretics in the presence of their photodecomposition products.

Ethanolic solutions of three thiazide diuretics, chlorothiazide, hydrochlorothiazide and trichlormethiazide, were irradiated with a high-pressure mercury lamp. The products were isolated and their first-derivative UV spectra in ethanol were recorded and compared to those of the parent compounds. The determination of the parent compounds in the presence of the decomposition products was carried out at wavelengths near 220 nm using the zero-crossing technique. Three reversed-phase HPLC methods were also developed for the analysis of the parent compounds. In parallel analyses of the reaction mixtures a good correlation was achieved between these two methods in the determination of hydrochlorothiazide and trichlormethiazide while there was greater variation in the results of chlorothiazide.