Study of degradation profile and development of stability indicating methods for cefixime trihydrate

The degradation behavior of cefixime trihydrate was investigated under different stress conditions of acidic hydrolysis, alkaline hydrolysis and oxidation using spectrophotometry. Stability indicating spectrophotometric methods were developed that could separate the drug from its degradation products formed under these stress conditions. The UV spectral characteristics of the drug and degraded products were quite different and zero and first order derivative ultraviolet spectrophotometric methods were used to study the extent of degradation. Cefixime trihydrate was found to degrade extensively under experimental conditions. The methods were validated by establishing the linearity, inter and intraday precision, accuracy, selectivity and specificity.