A comparative study of UV-spectrophotometry and first-order derivative UV-spectrophotometry methods for the estimation of diazepam in presence of Tween-20 and propylene glycol.

Nonionic surfactants like polysorbates (Tweens) and co-surfactant like propylene glycol are used in pharmaceutical dosage forms, like microemulsion of diazepam. These additives interfere significantly with the estimation of diazepam by UV spectrophotomery method. The aim of this work was to develop a first-order derivative UV-spectrophotometry method that can estimate diazepam in presence of Tween-20 and propylene glycol. The experimental results clearly suggested that, in comparison with the UV-spectrophotometry method, the first-order derivative UV-spectrophotometry is a simple method to estimate diazepam with sufficient accuracy, specificity, and precision even in the presence of 282-times Tween-20 and 2,072-times propylene glycol.