SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC AND SPECTROFLUORIMETRIC DETERMINATION OF OXCARBAZEPINE IN PURE FORM AND PHARMACEUTICAL PREPARATION

Simple and sensitive spectrophotometric Method (A) and spectrofluorimetric Method (B) were described for the analysis of oxcarbazepine. The proposed methods were based on the oxidation of the drug with cerium (IV) ion in acidic medium with subsequent measurement of either the decrease in absorbance at 321 nm or the fluorescence intensity of the produced cerous (III) ion at 363 nm emission after excitation at 256 nm. All variables that affect the decrease in absorbance or the fluorescence intensity such as the concentration of cerium (IV), reaction time and temperature, and the diluting solvent were studied and optimized. Beer’s low was obeyed in the range of 0.25 – 2.5 µg ml^-1 and 80 – 720 ng ml^-1. LOD and LOQ were found to be 0.01 and 0.241 µg ml^-1 and 17.8 and 59.33 ng ml^-1 for the method (A) and method (B), respectively. These methods were validated and successfully applied to the determination of oxcarbazepine tablets with an average percent recovery ± RSD% of 100.32 ± 0.283 and 100.03 ± 0.601 for the method (A) and method (B), respectively. The obtained results were statistically compared with those of the reported method by applying t-test and F-test at 95% confidence level, and no significant difference was observed regarding accuracy and precision.