Development and validation of stability indicating UPLC methods for related substances and assay analyses of ricobendazole hydrochloride

Ricobendazole hydrochloride is an active ingredient of a veterinary antiparasitic drug. The aim of this study was to investigate the degradation of ricobendazole hydrochloride under stress and stability testing conditions, for which we developed and validated the first stability indicating, specific, precise, accurate, and robust assay and related substances UPLC methods. The Acquity UPLC BEH C18 column was used for the related substances and assay analyses of ricobendazole hydrochloride, and the analyses were performed at 25 °C sample and 30 °C column temperatures with a 2 µL injection volume. In both methods, a mixture of water and methanol (60:40, v/v) was used as the diluent, mobile phase A was a phosphate buffer (50 mM potassium dihydrogen phosphate solution, pH 3.2 ± 0.05, adjusted with 10% o-phosphoric acid), and mobile phase B was a mixture of mobile phase A and acetonitrile (50:50, v/v). For the analysis of related substances, a gradient elution system was used at a flow rate of 0.4 mL/min for 35 min with a detection wavelength of 220 nm, while for the assay analysis; a gradient elution system was used at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min for 15 min with a detection wavelength of 290 nm. The calibration curves showed excellent linearity with high R-squared (R2) values for each compound, ricobendazole (0.9998, 0.249 - 3.740 µg/mL), ricobendazole amine (0.9998, 0.255 - 3.819 µg/mL), albendazole (0.9998, 0.255 - 7.646 µg/mL), and albendazole sulfone (1.0000, 0.251 - 15.090 µg/mL) indicating a strong correlation between the concentrations of the compounds and their respective peak areas in the UPLC analysis. The method showed excellent accuracy with relative standard deviation values of less than 2.5%. The stress and photostability studies showed that ricobendazole hydrochloride was insensitive to daylight and UV radiation and showed significant degradation at elevated temperature (85 °C, 9 days) and under all hydrolysis and oxidation conditions. The major impurity was ricobendazole amine under thermal and hydrolysis conditions, while albendazole sulfone was the major oxidative impurity.