Factors influencing the rate of degradation of Amoxycillin sodium and potassium clavulanate in the liquid and frozen states.

Abstract

Kinetics of the reactions of amoxycillin sodium and potassium clavulanate alone and in combination were investigated in the liquid and frozen states at selected pH values of 2.0, 4.6 and 7.0. A stability indicating HPLC assay was developed to perform simultaneous quantification of these compounds validated under stressed conditions.Amoxycillin and clavulanate degradation obeyed first-order kinetics under all conditions of this study. The effect of temperature, buffer, concentrations and complexation were investigated. Both compounds showed acceleration in rates due to general acid catalysis from buffer species. The buffer catalysis rate constants due to total phosphate and total acetate at 55 degrees celsius were 5.84x10(subscript)-1 (mol dm(subscript)-3)(subscript)-1 h(subscript)-1 and 1.53 X10(subscript)-1 (mol dm(subscript)-3)(subscript)-1 h(subscript)-1 for amoxycillin, 2.33 (mol dm(subscript)-3)(subscript)-1 h(subscript)-1 and 4.4x10(subscript)-1 mol dm(subscript)-3)(subscript)-1 h(subscript)-1 for clavulanate respectively. The buffer independent rate constant values were obtained and interpreted according to the available literature data. Increase in the initial concentration of amoxycillin or clavulanate did not change the first-order rate constant values of these antibiotics significantly at liquid state temperatures. However in the buffer systems, the rate of hydrolysis of amoxycillin in the combination was significantly subject to clavulanate catalysis. This novel finding was influenced by phosphate buffer concentration. A kinetic model was proposed and the second-order catalytic rate constant values at pH 7.0 and 55 degrees celsius were estimated for clavulanate catalysis of amoxycillin (k(subscript)cvc) to be k(subscript)cvc = 1.75 X10(subscript)2 (mol dm(subscript)-3)(subscript)-1 h(subscript)-1 and for phosphate catalyzed of clavulanate catalysis of amoxycillin (k(subscript)phccv) as k(subscript)phccv = 2.87 (mol dm(subscript)-3)(subscript)-1 h(subscript)-1.The temperature dependence of the rate of amoxycillin sodium degradation over the pH range evaluated did not change significantly. However the E(subscript)a values of potassium clavulanate decreased slightly with increase in pH. Both the compounds showed similar E(subscript)a values at pH 4.6 in acetate system. Hence 71.2 kJ mol(subscript)-1 for amoxycillin and 75.1 kJ mol(subscript)-1 for clavulanate.The investigation on complexation effects by HPbetaCD on the rate of hydrolysis of amoxycillin and clavulanate indicated no significant change in the rate of reaction of amoxycillin in the acetate buffer system. But the rate of clavulanate hydrolysis in combination was decreased by approximately 10%. The rate constant within the cyclodextrin complex and the stability constant of the complex obtained for clavulanate at pH 4.6 and 55 degrees celsius were k(subscript)c = 1.54x 10(subscript)-1 h(subscript)-1 and K(subscript)c = 74.2 (mol dm(subscript)-3)(subscript)-1.Extrapolation of the rate constant values to the frozen state from the liquid state data indicated marked acceleration of the rate of amoxycillin and clavulanate in all the pH values investigated. The highest acceleration in rate recorded was 15.0 fold for clavulanate in the hydrochloric acid system and the lowest value was 4.4 fold for amoxycillin at -7.3 degrees celsius. The rate constant values obtained were interpreted in terms of the concentration model (Pincock and Kiovsky 1966), phase-temperature relationship of the solutes, buffer catalysis, pH change and polymerization reactions.In the hydrochloric acid system a kinetic model was deduced providing adequate explanation of the experimental results. The stabilizing effect of sodium chloride used for maintaining constant ionic strength (mu=0.5) was enormous in this system. The shelf-life of amoxycillin was increased from 2.2 h to 58.3 h at -7.3 degrees celsius when sodium chloride was included in the system. It also stabilized the rates of the reactions significantly in the buffer systems.The buffer systems used in this study stabilized the rates of the reaction of both the drug compounds considerably. The shelf-life of amoxycillin in phosphate buffer was 621.3 h at -13.5 degrees celsius and in acetate buffer the shelf-life of clavulanate was 71.9 h at the same temperature. These are the highest shelf-life values recorded so far in the literature for amoxycillin and clavulanate at this frozen temperature.