A Novel Spectrophotometric Method for the Determination of Zolmitriptan in Pharmaceutical Formulations

Abstract

AbstractA simple, rapid, cost effective and extraction‐free spectrophotometric method has been developed for the determination of zolmitriptan in pharmaceutical raw and dosage forms. The method is based on the charge‐transfer reaction of zolmitriptan in acetonitrile medium with 0.2% 2,3‐dichloro‐5,6‐dicyano‐1,4‐benzoquinone to form a colored product peaking at 555 nm. Beer's law is obeyed in the concentration range 10‐250 μg mL−1 with molar absorptivity of 1.7 × 103 L mole−1 cm−1. The effects of variables such as reagent concentration, time of reaction, color stability and interferences have been investigated to optimize the procedure. The results have been validated analytically and statistically. The proposed method has been successfully applied for the determination of zolmitriptan in pharmaceutical formulations. Results indicate that the method is accurate, precise and reproducible (relative standard deviation < 2%).