Isolation and characterization of a novel acid degradation impurity of Amlodipine Besylate using Q-TOF, NMR, IR and single crystal X-ray

Forced degradation of Amlodipine Besylate (AMD) in acidic condition gave rise to a potential unknown impurity. This unknown acid degradation product (ADP) was evaluated using a new-reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), where it was eluted at 1.24 relative retention time to AMD peak. ADP was isolated using preparative HPLC from degradation mixture. Later, structure of ADP was elucidated using high resolution MS, multidimensional NMR and FTIR spectroscopic techniques, and characterized as ethyl-6-(2-chlorophenyl)-8-methyl-3,4,6,7-tetrahydro-2H-benzo[b][1,4]oxazine-5-carboxylate. The presence of ADP recemic mixture was confirmed by polarimeter and chiral HPLC. Given the complexity associated with ADP generation, single crystal X-ray crystallography technique was used to confirm proposed structure. In addition, reaction mechanism was postulated and confirmed using computational chemistry. To our knowledge, it is a novel impurity and not reported elsewhere. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.