Hydrolytic Degradation Profile and RP-HPLC Estimation of Cilostazol in Tablet Dosage Form

Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences 222 March April 2008 *For correspondence E-mail: pawanbasniwal@rediffmail.com A number of pharmaceutical substances have ester or amide as functional groups which may undergo hydrolysis in solutions or in aqueous suspension. Hydrolytic reactions involve nucleophilic attack on labile bonds such as lactam, ester, amide, imine and so on, by water on the drug in the solution and it follows Þ rst order kinetics1,2. Literature reveals that hydrolytic degradation is performed in neutral, acidic and alkaline conditions.

A number of pharmaceutical substances have ester or amide as functional groups which may undergo hydrolysis in solutions or in aqueous suspension.Hydrolytic reactions involve nucleophilic attack on labile bonds such as lactam, ester, amide, imine and so on, by water on the drug in the solution and it follows Þ rst order kinetics 1,2 .Literature reveals that hydrolytic degradation is performed in neutral, acidic and alkaline conditions.Cilostazol, chemically 6-[4-(1-cyclohexyl-1H-tetrazol-5-y1)-butoxy]-3,4-dihydro-2(1H)-quinolinone (fig.1), is a quinolinone derivative that inhibits cellular phosphodiesterase III, and is used for inhibition of platelet aggregation and as a vasodilator [3][4][5][6] .Literature survey reveals that only one chromatographic method is reported for quantitative analysis of cilostazol and its metabolites in human plasma 7 .
In the present work, RP-HPLC method was developed and validated for quantitative estimation of cilostazol in tablet dosage form and hydrolytic degradation of cilostazol was performed and analysized by validated RP-HPLC method.
Cilostazol working standard was gifted by IPCA laboratories, Ratlam (MP) and solvents acetonitrile and methanol were HPLC grade from Merck Ltd., India.All other chemicals (sodium hydroxide, hydrochloric acid and potassium hydroxide) were analytical grade from Merck Ltd., India.Cilostazol tablets (Pletoz-50, Hetero Drugs Ltd., Hyderabad) were procured from local market.
For the RP-HPLC method development and hydrolytic degradation analysis of cilostazol instrument and separation variables are shown Table 1.Cilostazol shows retention time 5.7±0.1 min in the set of separation variables.Six replicates were injected separately to study system suitability parameters retention time (RT), area under curve (AUC), number of theoretical plates, tailing factors and height equivalent theoretical plates (HETP).were analysed and statistical calculations were carried out (Table 3).

Hydrolytic Degradation Profile and RP-HPLC Estimation of Cilostazol in Tablet Dosage Form
Hydrolytic degradation in alkaline condition was carried out by dissolving accurately weighed 100 mg cilostazol in 50 ml methanol (HPLC grade) and volume was made upto 100 ml with 2 N NaOH.The solution was refluxed on water bath at 60 0 for 5 h.Aliquot of above solution was neutralized with 1 N HCl and diluted with diluent to obtain 800 ng/ ml solutions.The sample solution was analysed and chromatogram was recorded.No degradation of cilostazol was found in 1 N NaOH at 60 0 after 5 h.Further, cilostazol was degraded in 2 N NaOH and 5 N NaOH and cilostazol was found to be stable.
Hydrolytic degradation under acidic conditions was performed by dissolving 100 mg cilostazol in 50 ml acetonitrile (HPLC grade) and volume was made upto 100 ml with 2 N HCl.The solution was refluxed on water bath at 60 0 for 5 h.Aliquots of above solution was neutralized with 1 N NaOH and diluted with diluent to obtain 800 ng/ml solutions.The sample solution was analysed and chromatogram was recorded.No degradation of cilostazol was found in 1 N HCl at 60 0 after 5 h.Further, the solution was Accurately weighed about 100 mg cilostazol was dissolved in 50 ml methanol (HPLC grade) and volume was made upto 100 ml with triple distilled water (stock A, 1000 µg/ml).The stock solution was diluted to obtain 0, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600 and 3200 ng/ml solution of cilostazol.The dilutions were Þ llered through 0.45 µm membrane Þ lter and injected.Chromatograms were plotted and repeated for six times.A calibration graph was plotted between the peak AUC vs concentration and regression equation was AUC= 43.45X+156.75with correlation coefÞ cient r 2 = 0.9998.The method was validated according to ICH guidelines 8 .RSD values of all validation parameters are far less than 2% (Table 2).
Twenty tablets (Pletoz-50, Hetero Drugs Ltd., Hyderabad) were weighed and finely powdered.Powder equivalent to 100 mg of cilostazol was dissolved in 50 ml methanol (HPLC grade) and volume was made upto 100 ml with triple distilled water.The sample was sonicated for 15 min and filtered through Whatmann paper no.41 (stock P, 1000 µg/ml).10 milliliters of this stock was diluted up to 100 ml with 50% aqueous methanol (stock Q, 100 µg/ml) and then further diluted up to 100 ml obtain stock R (10 µg/ml).Aliquots of 10 µg/ml were diluted to obtain concentration of 800 ng/ml and filtered through 0.45 µm membrane filter.Samples  group in cilostazol.Methanol may react with amide group and produce significant experimental artifact components 9 .The acidic degradation of cilostazol was performed in 50% acetonitrile 1 N, 2 N and 5 N HCl at 60 0 for 5 h and no peaks (except cilostazol at 5.7 ± 0.1 min) were seen after treating by above stress conditions.Thus, cilostazol is also stable in 50% acetonitrile HCl.
degraded in 2 N HCl and 5 N HCl and was found to be stable.
Cilostazol tablets were analysed by validated RP-HPLC method and cilostazol was found in between 99.58-100.67%with relative standard deviation 0.0046.As cilostazol is insoluble in water and sodium hydroxide solution, cosolvent was required to perform alkali degradation of cilostazol.Acetonitrile as cosolvent was avoided for alkali degradation because it produces phase separation with 1 N or more concentrated NaOH solution 9 .So 50% methanolic sodium hydroxide solution was recommended to perform alkaline degradation of cilostazol.As per decision tree 10 the degradation of cilostazol was performed in 50% methanolic 1 N, 2 N and 5 N NaOH at 60 0 for 5 h.Since there was no other peak (except cilostazol at RT 5.7±01 min) after treating by above stress conditions, cilostazol is stable drug under these conditions.
Cilostazol is also insoluble in hydrochloric acid and methanol as cosolvent is avoided with high concentration of HCl due to presence of amide