Flow-injection chemiluminescent determination of metoclopramide hydrochloride in pharmaceutical formulations and biological fluids using the [Ru(dipy)(3)(2+)]-permanganate system.

A flow-injection (FI) methodology using (2,2'-dipyridyl) ruthenium(II) [Ru(dipy)(3)(2+)] chemiluminescence (CL) was developed for the rapid and sensitive determination of metoclopramide hydrochloride. The method is based on the CL reaction of metoclopramide with Ru(dipy)(3)(2+) and KMnO(4) in a sulfuric acid medium. Under the optimum conditions, a calibration graph was obtained over the concentration range 0.005-3.5mugml(-1) with a limit of detection (S/N=2) of 1ngml(-1). The correlation coefficient was 0.99993 (n=8) with a relative standard deviation of 0.48% for 10 determinations of 1mugml(-1) of drug. The method was successfully applied to the determination of metoclopramide in pharmaceutical preparations and biological fluids after IP administration of 25mgkg(-1) dose to rats. The elimination half-life was 2.5+/-0.4h.