Separation of Unprecedented Degradants of Domperidone by Ultra-Performance Convergence Chromatography and Their Structure Elucidation

: Domperidone, a gastroprokinetic agent, is a common drug to treat emesis. It was subjected to acid, base-mediated hydrolysis, peroxide-mediated oxidation, photolysis and thermal degradation according to ICH guidelines to observe stability of the selected drug under the stress conditions. Although the drug is resistant to base hydrolysis, photolysis and thermal stressors, two degradants (DP-ISO1 and DP-ISO2) were formed in acid mediated hydrolysis. Oxidation with hydrogen peroxide also resulted in one product (DP-OX). All three degradants were isolated from the crude reaction mixture by preparative high-performance liquid chromatography and supercritical fluid chromatography. Structures of isolated compounds were unambiguously characterized as 5-chloro-1-(1-(3-(6-chloro-2-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-benzo[d]imidazol-1-yl)propyl)piperidin-4-yl)-1,3-dihydro-2H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-one (DP-ISO1), 5-chloro-1-(3-(4-(5-chloro-2-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-benzo[d]imidazol-1-yl)piperidin-1-yl)propyl)-1,3-dihydro-2H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-one (DP-ISO2), 4-(5-chloro-2-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-benzo[d]imidazol-1-yl)-1-(3-(2-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-benzo[d]imidazol-1-yl)propyl)piperidine 1-oxide (DP-OX) by analysis of mass spectrometry, 1D and 2D nuclear magnetic resonance spectra. To the best of our knowledge, DP-ISO1 and DP-ISO2 are new and DP-OX was previously reported as domperidone impurity.