First derivative spectrophotometric, TLC-densitometric, and HPLC determination of acebutolol HCL in presence of its acid-induced degradation product.

Three methods are presented for the determination of acebutolol HCl in presence of its acid-induced degradation product. The first method was based on measurement of the first derivative amplitude of acebutolol HCl at 266.6 nm. The second method was based on separation of acebutolol HCl from its acid-induced degradation product followed by densitometric measurement of the spots at 230 nm. The separation was carried out on silica gel 60 F254, using ethanol-glacial acetic acid (4:1, v/v) as mobile phase. Second order polynomial equation was used for the regression line. The third method was based on high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) separation of acebutolol HCl from its acid-induced degradation product on a reversed phase, ODS column using a mobile phase of methanol-water (55:45, v/v) with UV detection at 240 nm. The first derivative spectrophotometric method was utilized to investigate the kinetics of the acid degradation process at different temperatures.