Csp. Sastry et al., SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC DETERMINATION OF BIOACTIVE COMPOUNDS IN COMMERCIALSAMPLES WITH NITROUS-ACID AND CRESYL FAST VIOLET ACETATE, Analytical letters, 29(8), 1996, pp. 1329-1349
A simple and sensitive method for the spectrophotometric determination
of bio-active compounds (drugs and non-nutritive sweeteners) containi
ng reactive functional groups, viz., aromatic primary amine (drugs: Su
lphamethoxazole), aromatic secondary amine (drug: Pindolol), secondary
amine (non-nutritive sweetener: Cyclamate), acid hydrazide (drug: Iso
niazid) and thiol (drug: Captopril), is proposed. The method involves
the addition of excess of sodium nitrite to the compound in the presen
ce of 0.25 M hydrochloric acid solution and the unreacted nitrous acid
is determined by the measurement of corresponding decrease in the abs
orbance of cresyl fast violet acetate (lambda(max) : 555 nm), the most
suitable one out of several dyes tested, This method was applied for
the determination of bio-active compounds in commercial samples. (drug
s: pharmaceutical formulations; non-nutritive sweetener (cyclamate): f
oodstuffs). The newly proposed method enabled the determination of the
bio-active compounds in microgram quantities (0.1 - 0.5 mu g/ml). Sta
ndard deviation values evaluated through replicate determinations were
found to be < 0.5 mg per dose (RSD : 0.5 - 1.2%). The common excipien
ts do not effect the determination of the drugs in pharmaceutical form
ulations. Many of the usually occurring additives in food stuffs are t
olerated to a very high level in the determination of cyclamate in bev
erages, syrup, ice candy and ice cream. The validity of the method was
tested against the reference method. Recoveries to the tune of 99.2 -
101.1% were observed by adopting this method.