Stress degradation studies and stability-indicating TLC-densitometric method of glycyrrhetic acid

Background: Glycyrrhetic acid, a pentacyclic triterpenoid, possesses a broad range of pharmacological activities and serves as template to synthesize many bioactive drugs. This paper describes a simple, accurate, and sensitive stability-indicating TLC densitometric method for the determination of glycyrrhetic acid and its degradation product as per the ICH guidelines. Results: Separation was carried out on TLC aluminium sheet pre-coated with silica gel 60F254 using chloroform, methanol and formic acid (9:0.9:0.1, v/v). Compact spot for glycyrrhetic acid was found at R-f value of 0.42 +/- 0.03. Densitometric analysis was carried out in the absorbance mode at lambda(max) 254 nm. Glycyrrhetic acid was found to be stable to the exposure of base, neutral, oxidation, dry heating treatment and wet heating treatment, but showed degradation under acidic and photochemical conditions. Moreover, fragmentation pattern of glycyrrhetic acid was developed by using a positive ion electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ESI-QqTOF-MS/MS) hybrid instrument. A photo-degraded product was characterized through comparison of mass spectrometric studies with glycyrrhetic acid. Conclusion: The developed stability-indicating TLC-densitometric method can be applied for routine analysis of glycyrrhetic acid in the presence of its degradation products.