Development of a novel 96-microwell assay with high throughput for determination of olmesartan medoxomil in its tablets

A novel 96-microwell-based spectrophotometric assay has been developed and validated for determination of olmesartan medoxomil (OLM) in tablets. The formation of a colored charge-transfer (CT) complex between OLM as a n-electron donor and 2, 5-dichloro-3, 6-dihydroxy-1, 4-benzoquinone (p-chloranilic acid, pCA) as a π-electron acceptor was investigated, for the first time, and employed as a basis in the development of the proposed assay. The proposed assay was carried out in 96-microwell plates. The absorbance of the colored-CT complex was measured at 490 nm by microwell-plate absorbance reader. The optimum conditions of the reaction and the analytical procedures of the assay were established. Under the optimum conditions, linear relationship with good correlation coefficient was found between the absorbance and the concentration of OLM in the range of 1-200 μg ml-1. The limits of detection and quantitation were 0.3 and 1 μg ml-1, respectively. No interference was observed from the additives that are present in the pharmaceutical formulation or from hydrochlorothiazide and amlodipine that are co-formulated with OLM in some formulations. The assay was successfully applied to the analysis of OLM in tablets with good accuracy and precision. The assay described herein has great practical value in the routine analysis of OLM in quality control laboratories, as it has high throughput property, consumes minimum volume of organic solvent thus it offers the reduction in the exposures of the analysts to the toxic effects of organic solvents, and reduction in the analysis cost by 50-fold. Although the proposed assay was validated for OLM, however, the same methodology could be used for any electron-donating analyte for which a CT reaction can be performed.