Acta Pharm. 70 (2020) 325-342
Original research paper
Stability study of thymoquinone, carvacrol and thymol using HPLC-UV and LC-ESI-MS
RABAB M. SOLIMAN, RANDA A. ABDEL SALAM, BASMA G. EID, AHDAB KHAYYAT,
THIKRYAT NEAMATALLAH, MOSTAFA K. MESBAH and GHADA M. HADAD
ghhadad@yahoo.com
1 Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Sinai
University, El Arish, North Sinai, Egypt
2 Department of Pharmaceutical
Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Suez Canal University, Ismailia,
Egypt
3 Department of Pharmacology and
Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, King Abdulaziz
University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
4 Pharmaceutical Chemistry Department,
Faculty of Pharmacy, King Abdulaziz University,
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
5
Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy,
Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt
Accepted September 30, 2019
Published online November 4, 2019
The aim of this
study was to investigate the stability of three major antioxidants of Nigella sativa: thymoquinone
(TQ), carvacrol (CR) and thymol
(THY), under different stress conditions using HPLC and LC-MS/MS. Forced
degradation for each compound was performed under different conditions,
including oxidation, hydrolysis, photolysis and thermal decomposition. The
results showed that both CR and THY were stable under the studied conditions,
whereas TQ was not affected by acidic, basic and oxidative forced conditions
but the effect of light and heat was significant. The degradation products of
TQ were further investigated and characterized by LC-MS/MS. HPLC-UV method has
been fully validated in terms of linearity and range, the limit of detection
and quantitation, precision, selectivity, accuracy and robustness. The method
was successfully applied to quantitative analysis of the principal antioxidants
of Nigella sativa TQ, CR and THY in different phytopharmaceuticals.
Keywords: thymoquinone, carvacrol, thymol, HPLC-UV, LC-MS/MS, stability