Rapid spectrophotometric method for quantitative determination of simvastatin and fluvastatin in human serum and pharmaceutical formulations.

A spectrophotometric method has been developed and applied to the determination of simvastatin and fluvastatin in human serum and in tablets. Simvastatine and fluvastatin were determined by measurement of their first derivative signals at 241.6, 245.9, 249.1 nm (for simvastatin) and 259.6 nm (for fluvastatin), respectively. Calibration curves were linear and the ranges of quantification were 12.0-28.0 micrograms.ml-1 for simvastatin and 10.0-28.0 micrograms.ml-1 for fluvastatin. The procedure was successfully applied to the determination of these compounds in pharmaceutical formulations as well as in human serum with a high percentage of recovery, good accuracy and precision, and without measurable interference by the excipients.