OPTIMIZED ELECTROANALYSIS OF TETRACYCLINE BY ALTERNATING-CURRENT POLAROGRAPHY

A study of electrochemical reduction on dropping mercury electrode by alternating current polarography (ACP) of tetracycline has been undert aken. The reduction wave of tetracycline is very complex and strongly dependent on the nature and concentration of the supporting electrolyt e and the pH of the analysed solution. The influence of ionic strength and FH on the sinusoidal alternating current polarographic behaviour of tetracycline was investigated using NaOH solutions at different con centrations and Britton-Robinson buffers of various pH. The drug can b e determined in the concentration range 1-200 ppm by ACP. The detectio n limit for the quantitative ACP determination was 0.1 ppm tetracyclin e in aqueous medium with NaOH concentrations between 4.00 M and 9.50 M . The precision of the method is good, the relative standard deviation being 1.8% for n = 10.