APPLICATION OF FIRST DERIVATIVE FLUORESCENCE SPECTROMETRY TO THE SIMULTANEOUS DETERMINATION OF PARACETAMOL AND SALICYLAMIDE IN PHARMACEUTICALS

The determination of paracetamol and salicylamide in the presence of e ach other was performed by means of a first-derivative spectrofluorime tric method with a ''zero-crossing'' technique of measurement. The rep orted method is based on the oxidation of the paracetamol with potassi um hexacyanoferrate (III) to give a fluorescent substance. The quantit ative ranges are 80-640 mu g l(-1) for paracetamol and 3.2-150.4 mu g l(-1) for salicylamide, with relative standard deviations of 3.1 and 1 .3 mu g l(-1), respectively. Good results, both in terms of sensitivit y and reproducibility, were obtained in the determination of paracetam ol and salicylamide in the presence of each other by using this techni que. The method was applied to several pharmaceutical formulations con taining the drugs and was found to be satisfactory.