Spectrophotometric determination of some catecholamine drugs using sodium bismuthate

Abstract

A novel spectrophotometric method is described for the determination of epinephrine (EP) and norepinephrine (NE). The method is based on the development of a red colour with sodium bismuthate, as a sensitive chromogenic reagent, in aqueous medium at pH 3. Oxidation of these catecholamines produces aminochrome derivatives which can be measured spectrophotometrically at 486.0 nm. Calibration graphs are linear in the range 4.8-800 (μmol l-1) for epinephrine bitartarate and 4.8-600 (μmol 1-1) for norepinephrine bitartarate with detection limits of 0.26 (μmol l-1) and 2.46 (μmol l-1) for epinephrine and norepinephrine bitartarate salts, respectively. The method has successfully been applied to determination of these catecholamines in pharmaceutical preparations. Copyright (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.