Hypoglycemic drugs acetohexamide

Acetohexamide is a blood-glucose-lowering drug of the sulfonylurea class. The first-generation oral hypoglycemic agents include tolbutamide (Orinase), acetohexamide (Dymelor), tolazamide (Tolinase), and chlorpropamide... 

Reaction of acetohexamide with 2,4-dinitrophenyl-hydrazine to produce the colored hydrazone was used by Amer and Walash (19) to determine the drug colorimetri-cally. The colored product was dissolved in KOH and determined at 480 nm. The accuracy of the method was claimed to be 100. A ninhydrin colorimetric method for some oral hypoglycemic agents was also reported (20b). 

Meier et al (22) analysed acetohexamide and other hypoglycemic agents by dissolving the drug in chloroform, adding calcium acetate (IX in methanol), propylamine (5 in methanol), diluting with chloroform and reading the absorbance at 565 nm after 15 minutes. Pharmaceutical preparations may be estimated similarly. 

Acetohexamide and other sulphonylureas were analysed by IR (22). A test have also been described (24). Lazaryan (26) determined the drug and other hypoglycemic agents by infra-red absorptlometric determination. A sample is treated with chloroform and the solution from the tablet sample is filtered. A portion of solution is diluted with chloroform and the absorbance is measured at 1722 to 1715 cm in 0.25 mm NaCI cell against chloroform. 

Hydroxyhexamide, like acetohexamide, possesses both hypoglycemic and uricosuric properties (51,52), but It Is 2.5 times as potent as Its parent drug (36). Impairment of hydroxyhexamide s elimination has been reported (51) to result In severe hypoglycemia. 

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