Determination of oxybutynin in pharmaceuticals via reaction with mixed acids anhydrides: application to content uniformity testing

Abstract

Sensitive and simple spectrophotometric (Method I) and spectrofluorimetric (Method II) methods were developed and validated for the determination of oxybutynin HCl (OXB) in its dosage forms. The method was based on the reaction of OXB with malonic acid anhydride in acetic acid anhydride to form a highly yellow colored product that was measured at 375 nm spectrophotometrically. The same reaction product exihibits strong fluorescence that was measured at 440 nm after excitation at 390 nm. The factors affecting formation and stability of the reaction product were carefully studied and optimized, and the reaction mechanism was postulated. The absorbance-concentration plot is rectilinear over the range 4-40 μg/mL with LOD of 1.12 μg/mL and LOQ of 3.39 μg/mL. The fluorescence-concentration plot is rectilinear over the range 0.5-6 μg/mL with LOD of 0.11 μg/mL and LOQ of 0.33 μg/mL. The method was applied to the analysis of commercial tablets Detronin® and Uripan®. Statistical comparison of the results with those of the reference method revealed good agreement and proved that there were no significant difference in the accuracy and precision between the two methods respectively. The study was extended to content uniformity testing.