Spectrophotometric determination of trazodone, amineptine and amitriptyline hydrochlorides through ion-pair formation using methyl orange and bromocresol green reagents

A simple and rapid extraction spectrophotometric procedure has been developed for the determination of tricyclic anti-depressant drugs such as trazodone (TZH), amineptine (APH) and amitriptyline (ATPH) hydrochlorides in pure form and in different dosage forms. The method involves the formation of intense yellow ion-pairs between these drugs under investigation and methyl orange (MO) and bromocresol green (BCG) reagents followed by their extraction with 1,2-dichloroethane and quantitative microdetermination at 420 and 410 nm using MO or BCG, respectively. The optimum experimental conditions for the ion-pairs formation are established. The method permits the determination of TZH, APH and ATPH over a concentration range of 2–50, 2–50 and 1–25 μg ml−1 for TZH, APH and ATPH, using MO and 1–25 μg ml−1 for TZH, APH and ATPH, using BCG, respectively. The Sandell sensitivity (S) is found to be 0.106, 0.1071 and 0.0907 g cm−2 for TZH, APH and ATPH, respectively, using MO reagent and 0.0788, 0.0661 and 0.0494 g cm−2 for TZH, APH and ATPH, respectively, using BCG. The method is applicable for the assay of the investigated drugs in different dosage forms and the results are in good agreement with those obtained by the official method.