Spectrophotometric determination of phenylephrine hydrochloride in pharmaceutical preparations

Abstract EN

A simple, rapid and sensitive spectrophotometric method for determination of phenylephrine hydrochloride (PPH) in pure form as well as dosage forms is described.

The method is based on the oxidative coupling of PPH with N,N-Diethyl-p-phenylenediamine monohydrochloride (N,N-DE-PPD) in present of N-Bromosuccinimide as oxidizing agent in sodium hydroxide medium.

Beer's law is obeyed in the concentration range of 0.5 - 16 μg ml−1 for PPH with a molar absorptivity of 11381 L.mol-1.cm-1, the accuracy is 100.38% and the relative standard deviation was less than 2.76%.

The method was successfully applied for the determination of PPH in pharmaceutical preparations and the results agree favorably with the official and reported methods.

Common excipients used as additives in pharmaceuticals do not interfere in the proposed method.

The method offers the advantages of simplicity, rapidity and sensitivity without the need for extraction or heating.