Stability-indicating determination of trimetazidine dihydrochloride inthe presence of two of its related substances using a direct GC/MS method.

A novel, simple, direct, and selective stability- indicating GC/MS procedure was developed for the determination of the anti-ischemic drug trimetazidine dihydrochloride (TMZ) in the presence of two of its related substances (potential impurities), namely, 2,3,4-trimethoxybenzyl alcohol (T1) and 2,3,4-trimethoxybenzaldehyde (T2). The method involved resolution of the undeilvatized compounds using a 100% dimethylpolysiloxane (Rtx-1) capillary column, and MS detection was carried out in the electron-impact mode. The peaks of the three compounds eluted at retention times 11.69, 11.92, and 15.47 min for T1, T2, and TMZ, respectively. Quantification of the parent drug TMZ was based on measuring its peak area. The reliability and analytical performance of the proposed method, including linearity, range, precision, accuracy, selectivity, detection, and quantification limits, were statistically validated. The calibration curve of TMZ was linear over the range 100-600 μg/mL. The proposed method was successfully applied to the assay of TMZ in several commercially available pharmaceutical formulations with recoveries not lessthan 96.2%.