Novel spectrophotometric determination of flumethasone pivalate and clioquinol in their binary mixture and pharmaceutical formulation

•Three smart methods for flumethasone pivalate and clioquinol binary mixture analysis.•Two spectrophotometric methods are recently developed and one is well established.•The methods can determine the minor component which has low absorption.•There was no interference with dosage form additives.•Validation was done according to ICH recommendations.

This work is concerned with development and validation of three simple, specific, accurate and precise spectrophotometric methods for determination of flumethasone pivalate (FP) and clioquinol (CL) in their binary mixture and ear drops. Method A is a ratio subtraction spectrophotometric one (RSM). Method B is a ratio difference spectrophotometric one (RDSM), while method C is a mean center spectrophotometric one (MCR). The calibration curves are linear over the concentration range of 3–45 μg/mL for FP, and 2–25 μg/mL for CL. The specificity of the developed methods was assessed by analyzing different laboratory prepared mixtures of the FP and CL. The three methods were validated as per ICH guidelines; accuracy, precision and repeatability are found to be within the acceptable limits.

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