Menadione: Role in cancer prevention and methods of analysis
Wajiha Gul
ABSTRACT
Menadione (vitamin K3) is a water-insoluble vitamin and an analogue of vitamin K. Its use an anti-cancer drug is increasing day by day. It produces its anti-tumor effect without causing any harm to the normal cells. Various methods have been developed for the analysis of menadione in pure form, pharmaceutical products and
biological fluids which includes spectrophotometry, chromatography, potentiometry, colorimetry, electrochemical, chemiluminescenes and polarographic methods. Of all the methods HPLC methods have been found to give more reliable and sensitive results. Fluorimetric methods are more promising as compared to the spectrophotometric methods for the assay of menadione. Certain polarographic methods have been found to give better results for the biological fluids. Chemiluminescence methods can be used for the assay of the vitamin
High performance liquid chromatographic methods: A rapid and simple reversed phase HPLC method has been proposed for the analysis of menadione in biological fluids (blood serum and urine) along with retinol, menaquinone,
cholecalciferol, α-tocopherol, α-tocopherol acetate, Wajiha Gul, World J Pharm Sci 2014; 2(10): 1390-1394 1392 δ-tocopherol and phylloquinone. The Phenomenex
Luna C18 column was used and the flow rate was adjusted at 1.3 ml/min. the detection was conducted at 280nm and the detection limit was found to be in
the range of 1.4-6.6ng per 20 microl injected samples. The recovery ranges for the blood serum were within 95-97.6% and for urine were 9402- 95.8% [39]. An accurate, simple and sensitive HPLC procedure for the analysis of menadione has
been conducted. The vitamin obtained from the plasma was extracted using n-hexane and methanol was added to the extraction solution to prevent loss of vitamin. The method employed the detection at 265 nm. The recovery was 82.4 +/- 7.69% [17]. Study has been conducted utilizing the technique of HPLC using C 30 column along with the development of fluorescence detection to determine
menadione in urine. 95% methanol and 0.55%aqueous solution of 5% DI H2O were utilized as the mobile phase. The study has shown linear calibration curve and has been found to be reproducible and sensitive [40]. Another accurate
and successful HPLC method has been developed for the determination of vitamin K1 and K3 found in the facial skin cream. The detection has been performed at 333 nm using C 18 column. Linear calibration curve has been observed for the
concentration of 0.2-1.0 mg/ml. the method has been found to be rapid and simple and can be used successfully for the determination of menadione in commercial creams [41]. A group of workers performed the analysis of five fat-soluble vitamins
including menadione, retinyl acetate, cholicalciferol, α-tocopherol and α-tocopherol
acetate in feed. The film coating of the tablets was destroyed with the help of enzyme, ethanol was utilized for the extraction of vitamins and for the purpose of purification, Oasis HLB was used. Methanol: water (98:2 v/v) was used at the mobile
phase while the detection was carried out at 230 and 265 nm. The method has been found to be linear, accurate and repeatable [42]. A method has been proposed for the determination of fat-soluble vitamins: menadione, retinoic acid, retinal, retinol, vitamin D2 and D3 utilizing the technique of RPHPLC. The vitamins were extracted from the plasma of rabbit. The UV detection was made at 245 nm and the mobile phase was composed of methanol: ethanol (85:15 v/v) with 0.1%
triethylamine. For extraction different solvents were used for different vitamins. The method has been found to be linear and showed 40% recovery for each vitamin [43]. Studies have also been conducted for the analysis of vitamin K3 in animal
feed [44,45], multivitamin formulations [46,47] and in minerals and vitamin supplements [48].