Development and Validation of New Spectrophotometric Methods to Determine Enrofloxacin in Pharmaceuticals

Abstract

Four spectrophotometric methods, based on oxidation with cerium(IV), are investigated and developed to determine EFX in pure form and in dosage forms. The frst and second methods (Method A and method B) are direct, in which after the oxidation of EFX with cerium(IV) in acid medium, the absorbance of reduced and unreacted oxidant is measured at 275 and 320 nm, respectively. In the third (C) and fourth (D) methods after the reaction between EFX and oxidant is ensured to be completed the surplus oxidant is treated with either N-phenylanthranilic acid (NPA) or Alizarin Red S (ARS) dye and the absorbance of the oxidized NPA or ARS is measured at 440 or 420 nm. The methods showed good linearity over the concentration ranges of 0.5–5.0, 1.25–12.5, 10.0–100.0, and 6.0–60.0 μg/ml, for method A, B, C and D, respectively, with apparent molar absorptivity values of 4.42 × 10 4 , 8.7 × 10 3 , 9.31 × 10 2 , and 2.28 × 10 3 l/(mol·cm). The limits of detection (LOD), quantification (LOQ), and Sandell’s sensitivity values and other validation results have also been reported. The proposed methods are successfully applied to determine EFX in pure form and in dosage forms.