Summary.A stability-indicating gradient reverse-phase liquid chromatographic method was developed for the quantitative determination of process-related impurities and forced degradation products of oxcarbazepine in pharmaceutical formulation. The method was developed by using Inertsil cyano (250 × 4.6 mm) 5 μm column with mobile phase containing a gradient mixture of solvent A (0.01 M sodium dihydrogen phosphate, pH adjusted to 2.7 with orthophosphoric acid and acetonitrile in the ratio of 80:20 v/v) and B (50:40:10 v/v/v mixture of acetonitrile, water, and methanol). The flow rate of mobile phase was 1.0 mL min −1 . Column temperature was maintained at 25°C and detection wavelength at 220 nm. Developed reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) method can adequately separate and quantitate five impurities of oxcarbazepine, namely imp-A, imp-B, imp-C, imp-D, and imp-E. Oxcarbazepine was subjected to the stress conditions of oxidative, acid, base, hydrolytic, thermal, and photolytic degradation. Oxcarbazepine was found to degrade significantly in acid, base, and oxidative stress conditions. The degradation products were well resolved from oxcarbazepine and its impurities. The developed method was validated as per International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) guidelines with respect to specificity, linearity, limit of detection and quantification, accuracy, precision, and robustness.

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