Stability-indicating chromatographic and UV spectrophotometric methods for determination of colchicine

Colchicine is an alkaloid that used in the relief of acute gout. Three simple, sensitive, selective and rapid methods have been developed for the determination of colchicine in the presence of its alkaline degradation product with good applicability on its pharmaceutical formulation. The first method was based on TLC separation of colchicine and its degradation using chloroform/methanol/conc ammonia (8:2:0.1 v/v/v) as a mobile phase and densitometric detection at 350 nm. The second method was HPLC using kromasil C18 column and a mobile phase of methanol/ammonia (100:1.5 v/v) with UV detection at 246 nm. The third method was spectrophotometry which involved induced dual wavelength method at 245 nm and 261 nm and first derivative of ratio spectra at 302.4 nm. The developed methods were validated according to ICH guidelines and successfully applied for the determination of colchicine in tablets.