AN INDIRECT SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC METHOD FOR DETERMINATION OF ARTEMETHER IN PURE AND FIXED DOSE FORMULATIONS
*Musa A1, Yusuf MT1, Nasir I2, Yakasai, AI1
1. Department of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria
2. Department of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria
Afr. J Pharm Res Dev; Volume 8(2): 152-158 ; Nov/Dec 2016
ABSTRACT
The increasing use of artemether-lumefantrine combination as an effective treatment for resistant malaria demands the need for analytical methods for the assay of these drugs in tablets and pediatric dosage forms. Some UV spectrophotometric methods have been developed for quantification of artemether in various formulations and biological fluids; the laborious heating required in these methods necessitates the need to develop a simpler spectrophotometric method for the quantification of artemether. We report herein, a method developed by reacting artemether solution in methanol with concentrated HCl for 30 minutes to obtain an α,β-unsaturated ketone with λmax of 260 nm. IR measurement of the α,β-unsaturated ketone obtained revealed a strong band at 1675 cm-1 which is consistent with the range (1685 – 1666 cm-1) for such type of ketones. The method was successfully applied in the assay of artemether in the standard powder and five brands of artemether-lumefantrine suspensions. The method obeyed Beer’s law in the range 20 – 120 μg/ml with regression equation A = 0.01C + 0.193 and correlation coefficient (r) 0.9987. The precision (% CV), accuracy (% Er), recovery, detection and quantification limits were found to be 2.0 %, 2.67 %, 97 %, 0.14 μg/ml and 0.58 μg/ml respectively. The content of artemether in all the samples assayed was within the official specification (98 – 101.6 %). No significant difference (P< 0.05) was observed when the developed method was compared with the International Pharmacopoeial method (IP, 2008) for determination of artemether. The results of the study indicate that the proposed method can be used for quantitative determination of artemether in pure and pharmaceutical dosage forms.
KEYWORDS: Artemether, UV spectrophotometry, Conc. HCl, decomposition product
*Corresponding Author: pharmamin@gmail.com