Application of a classical least-squares regression method to the assay of 1,4-dihydropyridine antihypertensives and their photoproducts.

A multicomponent UV spectrophotometric method using a classical least-squares (CLS) algorithm has been developed for the quantitative determination of 1,4-dihydropyridine (DHP) calcium antagonists and respective photoproducts. The procedure was optimized by defining a fractionation scheme for selecting the more useful wavelength ranges to be used in the calibration model. The method is potentially able to be extended to the other drugs of the same family. The recovery values from synthetic mixtures and commercial formulations were verified to be 99.09 and 97.85% for drug parents and degradation products, respectively. The sensitivity for the photoproducts determination was found to be below 0.8%. The results obtained from laboratory mixtures and commercial formulations were compared with those provided by UV derivative spectrophotometry.