Development of ultraviolet spectroscopic method for the estimation of metronidazole benzoate from pharmaceutical formulation

BACKGROUND: The present study was undertaken with an objective to develop a simple, accurate, cost-effective and reproducible ultraviolet spectrophotometric method for the estimation of metronidazole benzoate (MB) from pharmaceutical formulations. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The analysis was performed on λ(max) 268 nm by using 0.1 NHCl as diluents. The proposed method was validated on International Conference Harmonization guideline including the parameters viz., accuracy, linearity, precision, specificity and reproducibility. The proposed method was also used to access the content of MB in two commercial brands of Indian market. RESULTS: Beer's law was obeyed in the concentration range of 1-10 μg/ml having regression equation y = 0.078 x-0.012. The accuracy value for 4 μg/ml and 5 μg/ml concentration of MB was found to be 99.37% and 98.9% respectively. The relative standard deviation of interday and intraday was lesser than 1%. The developed method was applied on two different marketed brands and contents of MB were found to be 98.62% and 98.59% incompliance with labeled claim. The results were under the limit of acceptance statistically. CONCLUSION: It was concluded that the proposed method can be used for routine analysis of MB in bulk and commercial formulations.