Development and validation of sensitive spectrophotometric method for determination of two antiepileptics in pharmaceutical formulations

Rapid, sensitive and validated spectrophotometric methods for the determination of two antiepileptics (gabapentin (GAB) and pregabalin (PRG)) in pure forms and in pharmaceutical formulations was developed. The method is based on the formation of charge transfer complex between drug and the chromogenic reagents quinalizarin (Quinz) and alizarin red S (ARS) producing charge transfer complexes in methanolic medium which showed an absorption maximum at 571 and 528 nm for GAB and 572 and 538 nm for PRG using Quinz and ARS, respectively. The optimization of the reaction conditions such as the type of solvent, reagent concentration and reaction time were investigated. Beer’s law is obeyed in the concentration ranges 0.4–8.0 and 0.5–10 μg mL−1 for GAB and PRG using Quinz and ARS, respectively. The molar absorptivity, Sandell sensitivity, detection and quantification limits are also calculated. The correlation coefficients were ⩾0.9992 with a relative standard deviation (RSD%) of ⩽1.76. The methods are successfully applied to the determination of GAB and PRG in pharmaceutical formulations and the validity assesses by applying the standard addition technique, which compared with those obtained using the reported methods.

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► We validated novel and sensitive spectrophotometric method for determination of two antiepileptics.
► The method involves the formation of charge transfer complex between drugs and quinalizarin or alizarin red S.
► Beer’s law is obeyed in the concentration ranges 0.4–10 μg mL−1.
► The formed complexes were very stable.