A kinetic analysis of the acidic degradation of penicillin G and confirmation of penicillamine as a degradation product

Abstract

Two recently proposed degradation pathways for the acidic degradation of pencillin G were examined by calculating the theoretical time course based on each pathway and examining the fit of the theoretical predictions to the experimental data. A substantial difference in the goodness of fit was observed. The degradation pathway which provided the best fit included penicillamine as a terminal degradation product. This pathway is therefore favoured since penicillamine was also identified as a degradation product of penicillin G by both reversed-phase high pressure liquid chromatography and differential pulse polarography.