Spectrophotometric determination of sildenafil citrate in pure form and in pharmaceutical formulation using some chromotropic acid azo dyes

Two simple and highly sensitive spectrophotometric methods were developed for the quantitative determination of the drug sildenafil citrate (SC), Viagra, in pure form and in pharmaceutical formulations, through ion-associate formation reactions (method A) with mono-chromotropic acid azo dyes, chromotrope 2B (I) and chromotrope 2R (II) and ion-pair reactions (method B) with bi-chromotropic acid azo dyes, 3-phenylazo-6-o-carboxyphenylazo-chromotropic acid (III), bis-3,6-(o-hydroxyphenylazo)-chromotropic acid (IV), bis-3,6-(p-N,N-dimethylphenylazo)-chromotropic acid (V) and 3-phenylazo-6-o-hydroxyphenylazo-chromotorpic acid (VI). The reaction products, extractable in methylene chloride, were quantitatively measured at 540, 520, 540, 570, 600 and 575 nm using reagents, I–VI, respectively. The reaction conditions were studied and optimized. Beer's plots were linear in the concentration ranges 3.3–87.0, 3.3–96.0, 5.0–115.0, 2.5–125.0, 8.3–166.7 and 0.8–15.0 μg mL−1 with corresponding molar absorptivities 1.02 × 104, 8.34 × 103, 6.86 × 103, 5.42 × 103, 3.35 × 103 and 2.32 × 104 L mol−1 cm−1 using reagents I–VI, respectively. The limits of detection and Sandell's sensitivities were calculated. The methods were successfully applied to the analysis of commercial tablets (Vigoran) and the recovery study reveals that there is no interference from the common excipients that are present in tablets. Statistical comparison of the results was performed with regard to accuracy and precision using Student's t- and F-tests at 95% confidence level. There is no significant difference between the reported and proposed methods with regard to accuracy and precision.