The stability of bioactive compounds is an important property that is extensively studied during drug development in the pharmaceutical industry. Information about degradation products is usually obtained through extended stability studies carried out under different conditions, such as; extreme oxidizing conditions, temperatures, pH, and humidity. This study describes a High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) problem-based experiment for the quantitative determination of acetaminophen (APAP) in two brands of over-the-counter painkillers and to compare their relative degradation under different conditions. APAP is a widely used analgesic and antipyretic agent. Problem-based learning based on HPLC techniques using commonly known drugs provides students with the opportunity to develop and improve their skills in solving analytical problems. The HPLC instrument we used is equipped with a diode array detector and we identified the degradation product, 4-aminophenol, using a standard. However; this study can readily be designed to incorporate an accompanying problem-based experiment aimed at identifying unknown degradation products using suitable techniques such as mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

High performance liquid chromatography method for the quantitative determination of acetaminophen in commercial drugs and to study degradation of the drugs under extreme conditions

2019 Spring National Meeting

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