Spectrophotometric determination of some pharmaceutical piperazine derivatives through charge-transfer and ion-pair complexation reactions

Simple and sensitive spectrophotometric methods are described for the assay of three piperazine derivatives; ketoconazole, piribedil and prazosin hydrochloride based on charge-transfer and ion-pair complexation reactions. The first method is based on the reaction of the basic drug with 2,3,-dichloro-5,6-dicyano-p-benzoquinone (DDQ) in acetonitrile. The orange-red colour formed due to the formation of charge-transfer complex showed maximum absorbance at 460 nm. The second method is based upon the interaction of the basic drug in dry chloroform with bromophenol blue (BPB) in the same solvent to produce a stable yellow ion-pair complex which absorbs at 410 nm. Beer's law was obeyed for both methods and the relative standard deviations were found to be less than 1%. The two methods can be applied to the analysis of tablets, with no evidence of interference from excipients. A more detailed investigation of the complex was made with respect to its composition, association constant and free energy change. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.