Spectrophotometric study of time stability and acid-base characteristics of chelerythrine and dihydrochelerythrine

Abstract

Abstract Time stability, acid-base and UV-VIS spectral properties of dihydrochelerythrine (DHCHE) were studied spectrophotometrically in water:methanol and water:ethanol media. DHCHE is stable in strongly acid milieu (pH HCl, HNO3, H2SO4, H3PO4 and their mixtures. Remarkable shifts of formation parts of absorbance-pH (A-pH) curves to the alkaline medium were observed depending on the type and concentration of inert electrolyte (most remarkable for HNO3 and HCl). The corresponding equilibrium constants pKR+ of the transition reaction between charged iminium Q+ and uncharged QOH (pseudo-base, 6-hydroxy-dihydro derivative) forms of chelerythine were calculated using a numerical interpretation of A-pH curves by a SQUAD-G computer program which ranged from 8.51–9.31. The highest changes of ΔpK R+ (0.75 and 0.53) were observed for H3PO4 and H2SO4, respectively. The priority effect of ionic species and ionic strength was confirmed in the presence of additions of NaCl and KCl. The strength of interaction of CHE with biomacromolecular compounds (i.e., peptides, proteins, nucleic acids etc.) may be affected because of the observed influence of both cation and anion of the inert electrolyte on acid-base behavior.