Electrochemical behavior of carvedilol and its adsorptive stripping determination in dosage forms and biological fluids

Carvedilol is used in the management of hypertension and angina pectoris and as an adjunct to standard therapy in symptomatic heart failure. The electrochemical oxidation of carvedilol was investigated using cyclic, linear sweep voltammetry at a glassy carbon electrode. In cyclic voltammetry, in all values of pH, the compound shows two irreversible oxidation peaks. These two peaks are related to the different electroactive part of the molecule. First and second peak currents were found as diffusion and adsorption controlled, respectively. Using second oxidation step, two voltammetric methods were described for the determination of carvedilol by differential pulse adsorptive stripping voltammetry (AdSDPV) and square-wave adsorptive stripping voltammetry (AdSSWV) at a glassy carbon electrode. Accumulation of carvedilol was found to be optimized in 0.2 M H2SO4 solution following 275 second accumulation time at open circuit condition. Under optimized conditions, the current showed a linear dependence with concentration in the range between 2 x 10(-7) M and 2 x 10(-5) M in supporting electrolyte and in the range between 2 x 10(-7) M and 1 x 10(-5) M in spiked human serum samples for both methods. These methods were successfully applied for the analysis of carvedilol pharmaceutical dosage forms and spiked human serum samples. The repeatability and reproducibility of the methods for all media were determined. Precision and accuracy were also found. No electroactive interferences from the tablet excipients and endogenous substances from biological material were found.