Spectrofluorimetric determination of tranexamic acid in hydrogel patch formulations by derivatization with naphthalene-2,3-dicarboxaldehyde/cyanide.

The aim of this research was to develop and validate a spectrofluorimetric method for determination of tranexamic acid in hydrogel patch formulations. Tranexamic acid (trans-4-aminomethylcyclohexanecarboxylic acid, trans-AMCHA) is an antifibrinolytic drug that recently gained attention as a skin-whitening agent due to its inhibitory effect on ultraviolet (UV)-induced pigmentation in vivo. Derivatization with naphthalene-2,3-dicarboxaldehyde (NDA) in the presence of cyanide ion (CN(-)) to produce a fluorescent 1-cyanobenz[f]isoindole (CBI) product (lambda(ex) = 420 nm, lambda(em) = 480 nm) is for the first time reported for the determination of tranexamic acid in hydrogel patch formulations. Other separation techniques were not used in the analysis of the CBI-fluorescent product as required in the previous studies. The developed method was proven to be precise and accurate with percent recoveries ranging between 98.0% and 101.8% at the concentration range of 8.4-84.0 microg/ml (R(2) > 0.999). The intra- and inter-day precisions as expressed by the relative standard deviations (RSD) were below 1.85%. Derivatization of tranexamic acid with NDA/CN(-) was completed within five minutes and was stable for at least 30 minutes. The method has been applied to the analysis of drug content and release profiles in tranexamic hydrogel patch formulations.