APPLICATION OF HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY IN THE DETERMINATION OF TAUROMUSTINE IN PRESENCE OF ITS METABOLITES AND DEGRADATION PRODUCTS

A reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was developed for the determination of tauromustine (TM) in presence o f its metabolited in biological fluids and its degradation products in tablets. The proposed HPLC method was conducted using a lichrosorb C- 18 column 250 X 4 mm, with acetonitrile - water - acetate buffer pH5 (40 : 55 : 5) eluent, the detection was affected at 235 nm. The detec tor response was linear in the range 0.2-4 mu g/ml for TM with minimum detectability (S/N=2) of 2 ng/ml. The proposed HPLC method was applie d to the determination of TM in presence of its metabolites in biologi cal fluids. The percentage recoveries:of TM and its metabolites from s piked urine range from 93.1 to 92.9 and for plasma 90.3 to 89.6. The p roposed HPLC method was used to study the kinetics of degradation of T M in standard solution as a function of temperature and alkalinity. TM degraded followed first-order kineties in agreement with the Arrheniu s theory. The proposed HPLC method was applied in tablets and the resu lts obtained were in good agreement with those obtained by the referen ce method.