Spectrophotometric determination of chloramphenicol (after reduction) by nitrogen and conjugation using fluorochlosinol reagent - application to eye drops

ABSTRACT A spectrophotometric method for the assay of micro amounts of chloramphenicol was developed. This method is based on the reduction of the nitro-group of chloramphenicol to amino-group, followed by diazotization and coupling with phloroglucinol in alkaline medium to form a stable yellow azo dye which shows maximum absorption at 419 nm. Beer's law is obeyed over the concentration range (0.4 40) ppm. The molar absorptivity is (1.5437104) l.mol-1.cm-1 and Sandell sensitivity index of (0.021) g / cm2with a relative error of -1.8 to -0.52% and a relative standard deviation of 4.0 to 0.69%. The propose method has been applied to the determination of chloramphenicol in eye drop.