Stability-indicating methods for the determination of disopyramide phosphate.

Four methods were developed for the determination of intact disopyramide phosphate in the presence of its degradation product. In the first and second methods, third-derivative spectrophotometry and first derivative of the ratio spectra were used. For the third-derivative spectrophotometric method, the peak amplitude was measured at 272 nm, while for the derivative ratio spectrophotometric method, disopyramide phosphate was determined by measuring the peak amplitude at 248 and 273 nm. Both methods were used for the determination of disopyramide phosphate in the concentration range 12.5-87.5 microg/mL, with corresponding mean recovery 100.8 +/- 0.7% for the first method and 99.9 +/- 0.7% and 99.6 +/- 0.7% for the second method at 248 and 273 nm, respectively. In the third method, an ion selective electrode (ISE) was fabricated using phosphotungstic acid as an anionic exchanger, PVC as the polymer matrix, and dibutylsebacate as a plasticizer. The ISE was used for the determination of disopyramide phosphate in pure powder form in the concentration range 10(-2)-10(-5) M. The slope was found to be 58.5 (mV/decade), and the average recovery was 99.9 +/- 1.6%. The fourth method depended on the quantitative densitometric determination of the drug in concentration range of 0.25-2.5 microg/spot using silica gel 60 F245 plates and ethyl acetate-chloroform-ammonium hydroxide (85 + 10 + 5, v/v/v) as the mobile phase, with corresponding mean accuracy of 100.3 +/- 1.1%. The 4 proposed methods were found to be specific for disopyramide phosphate in presence of up to 80% of its degradation product for the spectrophotometric methods, 90% of its degradation for the densitometric method, and 40% for the ISE method. The 4 proposed procedures were successfully applied for the determination of disopyramide phosphate in Norpace capsules. Statistical comparison between the results obtained by these methods and the official method of the drug was done, and no significant differences were found.