The electrochemical behavior and determination of antihistaminic drug loratadine using a cathodically pretreated boron-doped diamond electrode (BDDE) is proposed. This is first voltammetric method using a carbon-based electrode material. The anodic peak potential for loratadine at BDDE was 1.67 V (vs Ag/AgCl (3.0 mol L -1 KCl)) by cyclic voltammetry in a 0.50 mol L -1 HClO 4 solution, whereas at glassy carbon electrode (GCE), no peak potential was observed, due to narrow potential window of this electrode. Using square-wave voltammetric technique (f = 50 Hz, a = 40 mV and ∆E S = 2 mV), the obtained analytical curve was linear for loratadine concentrations ranging from 0.98 to 19 µmol L -1 . This simple and green analytical method was successfully applied for the determination of loratadine in pharmaceutical formulations. The results were in a close agreement, with a 95% confidence level for those obtained using comparative spectrophotometric method.
IntroductionLoratadine is a tricyclic antihistamine, which it is a widely used to treat allergy symptoms, such as sneezing, watery eyes, skin rash, itching, hives, and runny nose.Overdose symptoms include headache, feeling tired, drowsiness, dry mouth, vomiting, hyperactivity, and fast or pounding heartbeat [1]. According to the importance and requirement for the quality control of the content of loratadine in pharmaceutical formulations, thereby reducing side effects and risk of overdose in the patient, an accurate and validated analytical procedure for determination of this compound is required.The official methods recommended by British Parmacopoeia [2] for loratadine determination involve non-aqueous titration or high performance liquid chromatography. Some analytical procedures were developed for determination of loratadine in pharmaceuticals and biological samples, which these include mainly chromatography [3-9], capillary electrophoresis [10,11] and spectrophotometry [12][13]. Of these approaches, the voltammetric methods are viable alternatives for determination of loratadine in pharmaceutical formulations due to some advantages, such as simplicity of operation, selectivity, are inexpensive techniques with high speed, rapidity of data acquisition, making them very competitive methods and usually the best choice for determination of electro-active compounds, being suitable for routine analysis. There is also the possibility of analysis of colored or solutions with suspended solids [14][15][16][17][18][19]. The sample preparation for electrochemical analysis is simple and practical, no filtration and a small volume of solution for analysis is required when compared with other techniques.