Quantitative analysis of chlorpheniramine maleate and phenylephrine hydrochloride in nasal drops by differential-derivative spectrophotometric, zero-crossing first derivative UV spectrophotometric and absorbance ratio methods

Three simple, rapid and accurate methods are described for the simultaneous determination of chlorpheniramine maleate and phenylephrine hydrochloride in two component mixtures. The first method comprised of measurement of difference absorptivities derivatized in first order of a nasal drops in 0.1 N NaOH relative to that of an equimolar solution in methanol at wavelengths of 271.6 and 250.2 nm, respectively. The second method, zero-crossing derivative spectrophotometry, is based on recording the first derivative curves and determining each component using the zero-crossing technique. Using first derivative spectrophotometry, the amplitudes in the first derivative spectra at 246.5 and 238.6 nm were selected to simultaneously determine chlorpheniramine maleate and phenylephrine hydrochloride in the mixture. The presence of identical zero-crossing points for pure drugs and nasal drop solutions established the non-interference of the excipients in the absorption at these wavelengths. Absorbance ratio method was also developed for a comparison method. The proposed procedures were successfully applied to the determination of chlorpheniramine maleate and phenylephrine hydrochloride in nasal drops, with a high percentage of recovery, good accuracy and precision.