A Simple and High Throughput Methodology for Simultaneous Determination of Levodopa and Carbidopa

Abstract

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system. The motor symptoms of PD disease result from the death of dopamine-generating cells in a region of the mid brain and the dopamine precursor levodopa (L-Dopa) is used for the treatment. Carbidopa (Car) is administered in association with L-Dopa in pharmaceutical formulation as an inhibitor on the decarboxylase activity. Thus, their simultaneous determination is of great importance because of their co-existence in pharmaceutical preparations. Present study deals with a simple method development for simultaneous voltammetric determination of L-Dopa and Car at a pencil graphite electrode (PGE) via monitoring the reduction peak of L-Dopa and the second oxidation peak of Car. The sensitivity of the method was found comparable to other methods depending on the sophisticated electrode modifications and the limits of detection were calculated as sub micromolar levels.