Flow Injection Electrochemical Determination of Apomorphine

Abstract

Few analytical methods are currently available for determination of apomorphine, the active substance of a new oral formulation used in the treatment of erectile dysfunction. In this way a flow injection electrochemical method (FIA-EC) was developed for its quantification and applied to pharmaceutical dosage forms. Based in previous findings regarding the stability of apomorphine in borate buffer and after optimization of several analytical parameters a single channel flow injection manifold was set up that enables the determination of this drug over the concentration range of 3 to 16 µmol L⁻¹ with a detection limit of 0.5 µmol L⁻¹ at a sampling rate of 90 h⁻¹. The simplicity and rapidity of the FIA-EC method used, its reproducibility and sensitivity make it suitable for quality control of pharmaceutical preparations of apomorphine intended for clinical use and research.

Keywords:

• Apomorphine
• Electrochemical detection
• Flow injection

Acknowledgments

We thank Abbott Laboratories (Amadora, Portugal) for the generous gift of the dosage forms containing apomorphine. One of us (J.M.P.J.G.) would like to thank the PRODEP Program Ph.D. grant.