Spectrophotometric determination of acetaminophen content of different brands of paracetamol tablets from Zliten

Abstract

Paracetamol is a medicine compound commonly used as analgesic and antipyretic.1-5 It is classified as one of the drugs, known as aniline analgesics.6-9 It is used widely for the relief of a headache, other minor aches, pains, inflammations and a major ingredient in several cold and flu remedial combination drugs. While generally safe for use at a recommended dose, toxicity of paracetamol is the foremost cause of acute gastro intestinal problems.10-12 Paracetamol is considered to be the inhibitor of cyclooxygenase (COX), and recent reports suggest that it is highly selective for COX- 2. While it has analgesic and antipyretic properties comparable to those of aspirin or other NSAIDs, its peripheral anti-inflammatory activity is usually limited by several factors, one of which is high level of peroxides present in inflammatory lesions. It could be considered as one of Non-Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drugs (NSAID).13-20 Many methods for its determination have been described in literature, including chromatography (RP - HPLC), chemometric - assisted spectrophotometric spectroscopy, Spectrophotometry and electrochemistry.Many spectrophotometric methods required complicated treatment, such as long period of heating (60-90 min) using concentrated acids as hydrolysis reagent. This work based on the oxidation of paracetamol by using Cr(VI) in presence of 6M sulfuric acid and 15 min heating at 80 °C as shown in scheme 1.