STABILITY OF CAPTOPRIL IN SOME AQUEOUS SYSTEMS

A stability-indicating high performance liquid chromatographic method has been proposed to quantify captopril. The method has been used to determine the stability of captopril in oral liquid dosage forms prepared from either commercially available tablets or powder. The dosage forms in water were more stable than when the vehicle was a syrup. Furthermore, the dosage form prepared using powder in water was more stable than when tablets were used. While the decomposition of captopril followed first-order equation when the dosage forms were prepared in syrup (in two of the three solutions studied), this equation was not followed when water was the vehicle. This is probably due to an uncontrolled factor, oxygen, because captopril is very sensitive to oxidation. Captopril solution prepared in water using tablets was stable for about 20 days when stored at 5-degrees-C, and that prepared using powder in water was stable for about 27 days. One commercial syrup hastened the process of decomposition with an additional unidentified product of decomposition.