A study of the electrochemical oxidation of Navelbine.

The search for drugs with cytostatic activity and with better pharmacokinetic features led to the synthesis of Navelbine (5'-noranhydrovinblastine) which is a structural modification of antitumour Vinca alkaloids. The new drug Navelbine has high liposolubility, a lower toxicity and increased antitumour activity. The electrochemical oxidation of Navelbine was studied over a wide pH range (1.2-12.8) at a glassy carbon disc electrode in buffered aqueous media using differential pulse and cyclic voltammetry. The anodic oxidation mechanism is a very complex, pH dependent, multistep electron transfer process with coupled homogeneous chemical reactions.