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Nifedipine, (1,4-dihydro-2,6,dimethyl-4-(2-nitrophenyl)-3, 5-pyridinedicarboxylic acid dimethyl ester) a calcium channel blocker widely used in treatment of hypertension, is strongly photolabile. This may represent a problem in patients taking nifedipine and in handling of nifedipine samples. Reactive radical intermediates were determined and characterized in the process of nifedipine illumination using EPR spectroscopy. On illumination of nifedipine by daylight or by a mercury lamp, a nitroxide radical, RIIL-NIFNO.X was observed (in the first step), in various solvents like benzene, cyclohexane, methanol, acetonitrile, dimethylsulphoxide, or aqueous suspensions of liposomes. RIIL-NIF represents the nifedipine skeleton centered with phenyl group, and X is an EPR silent substituent. The generation of RIIL-NIFNO.X is coupled with the formation of nitroso compound, RIIL-NIFNO, as characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy. In a further step, RIIL-NIFNO abstracts hydrogen from nifedipine skeleton under the formation of RIIL-NIFNO.H radical. In addition to this, in system containing RIIL-NIFNO and unsaturated lipids, nitroxide radicals RIIL-NIFNO.RLIPIDS are formed probably via a pseudo Diels-Alder mechanism (RLIPIDS represents lipidic skeleton). The unusually easy photochemical activation of nifedipine is probably stimulated by photosensitization of its nitro group interacting with suitably positioned hydrogen or carboxylic methyl ester group from the pyridinyl ring.

The alpha-tocopheroxyl radical (alpha TR.)generated in the reaction with 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl in n-butanol decayed according to second-order kinetics with a rate constant k alpha = 3 x 10(3) M-1s-1 as determined by EPR spectroscopy. Various biologically and pharmacologically active substances like isoprenaline (ISO), epinephrine (EPI), histamine (HIS), stobadine (STO), nafazatrom (NAF) and Kampo C medicine (KMC) accelerated the decay rate of alpha TR(.). The whole process is formally a third-order reaction with the rate constants (in 10(9) M-2s-1): ks(ISO) = 1.28, ks(NAF) = 1.25, ks(EPI) = 0.6, ks(HIS) = 0.4, and ks(STO) = 0.1. In the kinetics of the reaction mechanism, bimolecular intermediates are assumed and the rate constants of their formation were determined.