Quantifying Isotibolone in Raw Materials of Tibolone

Tibolone, a synthetic steroid, is used in the treatment of natural or surgical menopause disturbs resultant of estrogenic deficiency. Isotibolone (Δ4-tibolone) is one of the three active metabolic degradation products of tibolone that displays progestagenic effects on carcinoma cell growth and gene regulation. Isotibolone can be present in raw material of tibolone due to some inadequate synthesis or storage. Its presence is necessary to be identified and quantified in active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), before its use in the manufacturing of medicines. After a recent study on the crystal structure determination of isotibolone, quantitative phase analyses of both tibolone and isotibolone in raw materials and tablets became possible to be conducted. X-ray powder diffraction is one recommended tool for this purpose, but it can be highly frustrating due to the extreme peak overlap when conventional laboratory equipments are used. In this work we show that the use of Brazilian Synchrotron Light Source X-ray powder diffraction data and the Rietveld method can be successfully applied to identify and quantify the isotibolone in two samples of tibolone raw materials.