Amlodipine: A Review of Analytical Methods

Abstract

Amlodipine is a long-acting calcium channel blocker (dihydropyridine (DHP) class) used as an anti-hypertensive and in the treatment of angina. Like other calcium channel blockers, amlodipine acts by relaxing the smooth muscle in the arterial wall, decreasing total peripheral resistance and hence reducing blood pressure; in angina it increases blood flow to the heart muscle . The clinical and pharmaceutical analysis of this drug requires effective analytical procedures for quality control and pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic studies as well as stability study. an extensive survey of the literature published in various analytical and pharmaceutical chemistry related journals has been conducted and the instrumental analytical methods which were developed and used for determination of amlodipine as single or combination with other drugs in bulk drugs, formulations and biological fluids have been reviewed. this review covers the time period from 1998 to 2011 during which 42 analytical methods including spectrophotometric methods like uv and derivative; visible which is based on formation of metal complexation, ion pair formation, charge-transfer complexation, IR spectroscopy, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, spectrofluorometric methods and chromatographic method including HPLC, HPTLC, LC-MSMS and miscellaneous method like differential-pulse voltammetry, potentiometric method were reported. The application of these methods for the determination of amlodipine in pharmaceutical formulations and biological samples has also been discussed.