Micellar-enhanced synchronous-derivative fluorescence determination of derivatized folic acid in pharmaceutical preparations.

A sensitive and inexpensive micellar-enhanced synchronous-derivative spectrofluorimetric method is described for the determination of folic acid in pharmaceutical preparations. The method is based upon derivatization of the vitamin with fluorescamine in acid solution and enhancement of the fluorescence with a surfactant. Linear fluorimetric analytical curves were obtained for folic acid concentrations of 0.05-6 micrograms ml-1 (detection limit 0.012 micrograms ml-1); the RSD for 1 micrograms ml-1 of folic acid was 2.82%. The method has been applied to the determination of folic acid synthetic mixtures and pharmaceutical preparations.