Abstract
A sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography method was developed for the determination of atenolol in bulk drug and pharmaceutical formulation in the presence of flurbiprofen as internal standard, Separation was carried out on a Purospher Start, C-18 (5 mu m, 250 x 4.6 mm) column with MeOH: H2O (80: 20, % v/v) solvent systems and pH was adjusted to 2.85 with ortho-phosphoric acid. Mobile phase was pumped with a flow rate of 1 ml/minute with UV detection at 224 nm. Standard curves were linear over the concentration range of 0.25-30 mu g/ml. The inter-day and intra-day coefficients of variation were less than 1 % at different concentrations. The method was then applied to study interaction of atenolol with essential and trace elements. The combination of hydroxy and aminogroups makes atenolol a good chelating ligand. Drug metal interaction studies were carried out at 37 degrees C to monitor the complexation of drug with metal ions. The order of complexation of atenolol with metals was found to be copper > ferric > chromium > zinc > ferrous > cobalt > nickle > magnesium > manganese > cadmium > calcium.