First and second order derivative spectrophotometric determination of benzyl alcohol and diclofenac in pharmaceutical forms

Diclofenac sodium is a drug with analgesic, antipyretic and anti-inflammatory properties. It is present in numerous pharmaceutical preparations. In injectable forms, it is usually accompanied by benzyl alcohol as an excipient, which is used as a blocking anesthetic (4%) and an antiseptic (4-10%). In this work spectrophotometric methodology was used in order to determine diclofenac and benzyl alcohol in injectable formulations by applying, on the one hand, the first-derivative method of crossing zero for diclofenac sodium and on the other, second derivative for benzyl alcohol. The results obtained show that this method has a significant advantage over other techniques and it is appropriate for routine pharmaceutical analysis. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.