It is a reversibly inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase, indicated for the treatment of mild to moderate dementia of Alzheimer's type 1. The structural formula of Donepezil Hydrochloride is as follows:A few methods have been reported for the determination of I including HPLC methods in tablets 2) and human plasma.3-7) Isocratic HPLC method with fluorescence detection at 390 nm with an excitation at 325 nm for determination of donepezil in plasma and microdialysate samples was developed. 3) Analysis and enantioresolution of Donepezil was performed using capillary electrophoresis. 8) Determination of enantiomers of Donepezil Hydrochloride in rat plasma by liquid chromatography with fluorimetric detection of I with excitation at 318 nm and emission at 390 nm was described by Haginaka and Seyama. 9) Donepezil Hydrochloride was found to be stable in acid and alkaline medium, but liable to oxidative degradation using hydrogen peroxide.2) Reviewing the literature in hand, it is obvious that no spectroscopic study has been attempted to determine donepezil hydrochloride in the presence of its oxidative degradate.Upon scanning the absorption spectra of each I and II, it was observed that I has l max at 315 nm, at this wavelength II has a very little constant absorbance. Trials to use zero order absorption at 315 nm for determination of I in presence of II was successful for up to 70% of II. Zero order solve the problem of overlapping bands of I and II to certain extent but derivative spectrophotometry is a well established technique that is able to enhance the resolution of overlapping bands so to increase the selectivity of the method. D 1 and D 2 methods were constructed by measuring I at 332.1 nm and 340 nm (zero crossing of II), respectively. Different parameters affecting the D 1 and D 2 spectra were studied; namely Dl interval and smoothing factor. The best condition was by using 4 nm and 8 nm Dl interval for D 1 and D
2, respectively, without smoothing.The scientific novelty of the present work is that the methods used are simple, rapid, sensitive, and less expensive and less time consuming compared with other published LC methods. In addition, the aim of this work is to develop simple stability indicating methods for determination of I in presence of its oxidative degradate (II).
ExperimentalInstrumentation A double beam UV-Visible spectrophotometer (SHI-MADZU, Japan) model UV-1601 PC with quartz cell of 1 cm path length, connected to IBM compatible computer and HP 680 inkjet printer. The bundled software was UVPC personal spectroscopy software version 3.7. The spectra bandwidth was 2 nm and wavelength-scanning speed 2800 nm/min. A spectrofluorimeter (SHIMADZU, Japan) model RF-1501 with an Epson Lx-300ϩPrinter. 1 cm quartz cell was used at low sensitivity and 2.5 nm bandwidth. TLC glass plates precoated with silica gel G F 254 (E. Merck). 25-ml Hamilton syringe. Chromatographic tank 20ϫ21ϫ9 cm (Desaga). SHI-MADZU Dual wavelength flying spot scanner, densitometer model CS9000.Materials and Reagents Donepezil Hydroc...