The voltammetric behaviour of nilvadipine was studied adopting direct-curre
nt, differential-pulse and alternating current polarography. Nilvadipine-be
ing nitroderivative-exhibited well-defined cathodic waves over the whole pH
range in Britton-Robinson buffers. At pH 5, the diffusion-current constant
, (ld) was 4.78. The current-concentration plots are rectilinear over the r
ange 1.5-20 and 0.2-10 mug/ml using the direct current and differential pul
se-polarographic techniques with minimum detectability of 0.05 mug/ml (1.3
x 10(-7) M) using the latter technique. The proposed method was applied to
commercial capsules containing the drug. The percentage recoveries were in
agreement with those obtained by a reference method. Furthermore, the metho
d was applied to spiked human urine, the percentage recovery was 95.54 +/-
2.137. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.