Spectrophotometric determination of fluoxetine and sertraline using chloranil, 2, 3 dichloro-5, 6 dicyano benzoquinone and iodine.

Spectrophotometric procedures are presented for the determination of two commonly used antidepressant drugs, fluoxetine (I) and sertraline hydrochloride (II). The methods are based mainly on charge transfer complexation reaction of these drugs with either pi acceptors chloranil and 2, 3 dichloro-5, 6-dicyanoquinone (DDQ) or sigma acceptor iodine. The colored products are quantified spectrophotometrically at 550, 450 and 263 nm for fluoxetine and at 450, 455 and 290 nm for sertraline in chloranil, DDQ and iodine methods, respectively. The molar combining ratio and the optimum assay conditions were studied. The methods determine the cited drugs in concentration ranges of 8-640, 16-112 and 7.5-60 microg/ml with mean percentage recoveries of 99.83, 99.76 and 100.00% and R.S.D. of 1.24, 0.95 and 1.13% in fluoxetine and ranges of 16-160, 15-105 and 6-48 microg/ml with mean percentage recoveries of 100.39, 99.78 and 99.69% and R.S.D. of 1.02, 0.81 and 0.57% in sertraline for chloranil, DDQ and iodine methods, respectively. A more detailed investigation of the complex formed was made with respect to its composition, association constant K(AD)c, molar absorptivity xiAD(A) and free energy change deltaG. The proposed methods were applied successfully to the determination of the cited drugs either in pure or dosage forms with good accuracy and precision. The results were compared statistically with those given by the reported methods.