Advanced electrochemical platform for determination of cytostatic drug flutamide in various matrices using a boron-doped diamond electrode

- First report dealing with electrochemical oxidation of flutamide is presented.
- BDD electrode was used for the first time in sensing of cytostatic drug.
- Advanced innovative platform for determination of flutamide was developed.
- Submicromolar LOD values were achieved using bare BDD electrode.
- Simple and effective alternative to mercury-based and modified electrodes.

An innovative, rapid and simple electrochemical approach for the reliable quantification of cytostatic drug flutamide (FLU) in various matrices is herein proposed. This platform involves coupling of differential pulse (DPV) and square-wave voltammetry (SWV) with a boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrode as the working electrode and 0.1 M sulphuric acid as the supporting electrolyte. For the first time, the voltammetric profile of FLU was manifested by three irreversible and diffusion-controlled oxidation peaks at +1.1 (P1), +1.4 (P2) and +1.9 V (P3). The analytical performance evaluation was assessed for all three peaks, using both pulse voltammetric techniques with the optimized operating parameters and the highest sensitivity of 1.76 nA/μM was accomplished for P2 using DPV and 3.54 nA/μM for P3 using SWV. The corresponding linear concentration ranges were found to be 0.99-42.9 and 4.8-35.5 μM with the detection limits of 0.42 and 0.18 μM, respectively. The repeatability varied, depending on the oxidation peaks of FLU, with the relative standard deviations in the range of 3.3-8.8% and 2.9-9.3% for DPV and SWV, respectively. The proposed electrochemical platform was successfully applied in the analysis of pharmaceutical formulations, spiked human urine and water samples with the significant mean recoveries. Using BDD electrode, the current work establishes an advanced, simple and rapid alternative platform to so far used toxic mercury-based electrodes and time demanding chemically modified electrodes in cytostatic sensing. Besides, BDD electrode represents a comfortable electrochemical sensor for routine analysis in pharmaceutical, clinical and environmental chemistry.