Pharmaceuticals major degradation pathways

There are four major degradation pathways that an analytical chemists must focus on for pharmaceutical analysis thermolytic (heat), hydrolytic (water), oxidative (oxygen, light, peroxide), and photolytic (UV and Vis light). 

While this is a very positive boundary condition for the development of low-dose formulations, the major drawback of the low-dose formulation range is, as mentioned earlier, the potential exacerbation of chemical instability of active pharmaceutical ingredients. Thus, stabilization techniques are of high interest to the formulator dealing with this formulation space. Specifically, stabilizers from various classes of antioxidants have been applied.23,24 It is obvious that the specific knowledge of potential and actual degradation pathways of the drug will be crucial for the development of stable formulations. 

As mentioned previously, oxidative degradation pathways can be complex, and it is useful to consider the chemistry of oxidative degradation. The oxidative degradation of pharmaceuticals has been discussed in the literature,23-27 and we assert that there are three major pathways, (1) autoxidation or radical-mediated oxidation, (2) peroxide-mediated, and (3) photochemically induced (see Table 5). Traditionally, dilute aqueous peroxide solutions have been used for oxidative stress testing of pharmaceuticals. Landmark papers by Boccardi23 24 in 1992 and 1994 identified autoxidation as the major oxidative degradation pathway for pharmaceuticals. Boccardi showed that the use of radical initiators such as... 

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