NO-donors, part X [1]: Investigations on the stability of pentaerythrityl tetranitrate (PETN) by HPLC-chemoluminescence-N-detection (CLND) versus UV-detection in HPLC

HPLC in combination with chemoluminescence-N-detection (CLND) is very useful for the analysis of pentaerythrityl tetranitrate (PETN) and its possible biological and chemical degradation products pentaerythrityl trinitrate (PETriN), pentaerythrityl dinitrate (PEDiN) and pentaerythrityl mononitrate (PEMonoN). Quantification is more convenient and sensitivity of this method is about four times higher compared to UV-detection. The present study demonstrates that PETN is a chemically more stable compound in vitro than expected. No degradation was observed in aqueous buffers (37 °C, pH 5.6, 7.4), human plasma, and simulated intestinal or gastric fluid. On the other hand, the addition of increasing amounts of thioles (cysteine, thioglycolic acid) induced an increasing degradation of PETN.