THE STAIRCASE NONISOTHERMAL ACCELERATED TEST——A NEW METHOD FOR STABILITY PREDICTION

In the present paper, a new kinetic technique is established for prediction of stability of pharmaceuticals, named staircase nonisothermal kinetic method, which is simpler in equipment and easier in operation than any other nonisothermal kinetic method in the 70's. The experimental data obtained may be treated either by computation or by charts. Acid catalytic hydrolysis of sugar, oxidation of ascorbic acid and deamination of arabinosylcytosine are taken as examples in comparing the staircase nonisothermal method with the conventional isothermal' kinetic method. Results show that there is no significant difference between these two methods for the value of activation energy, pre-exponential factor (frequency factor), rate constant and shelflife prediction. Furthermore, this method requires much less time and labour than other methods.