Spectrofluorimetric determination of vigabatrin and gabapentin in urine and dosage forms through derivatization with fluorescamine

A stability-indicating, sensitive, simple and selective spectrofluorimetric method was developed for the determination of vigabatrin (VG) and gabapentin (GB). The method is based on the reaction between the two drugs and fluorescamine in borate buffer of pH 8.2 to give highly fluorescent derivatives that are measured at 472 nm using an excitation wavelength of 390 nn for both drugs. The optimum conditions were ascertained and the method was applied for the determination of VG and GB over the concentration range of 0.20-4.00 and 0.1-1.0 mug/ml, respectively with detection limits of 0.05 mug/ml (2.9 x 10(-7) M) and 0.06 mug/ml (2.3 x 10(-7) M) for VG and GB, respectively. The suggested method was applied, without any interference from the excipients, to the determination of the two drugs in their pharmaceutical formulations. Furthermore, the method was extended to the in-vitro determination of both drugs in spiked human urine. Interference from endogenous amino acids could be eliminated through selective complexation with copper acetate, the % recovery (n = 4) is 98.0 +/- 7.05. Co-administered drugs such as lamotrigine, phenobarbitone, valproic acid, clopazam, carbamazepine, clonazepam and cimitidine did not interfere with the assay. The method is also stability-indicating; as the degradation product of vigabatrin: 5-vinylpyrrolidin-2-one, produced no interference with its analysis. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.