Spectrofluorimetric Methods for the Determination of Gemifloxacin in Tablets and Spiked Plasma Samples

Abstract

Two new, sensitive and selective spectrofluorimetric methods have been developed for the determination of gemifloxacin (GFX) in tablets and spiked plasma samples. Gemifloxacin, as a primary amine compound, reacts with 7-chloro-4-nitrobenzofurazon (NBD-Cl) (for method A) and fluorescamine (for method B) which are a highly sensitive fluorogenic reagents used in many investigations. For method A, the reaction product was measured spectrofluorimetrically at 516 nm with excitation at 451 nm. The reaction proceeded quantitatively at pH 8.5, 80 °C in 7 min. For method B, the method was based on the reaction between GFX and fluorescamine in borate buffer solution of pH 8.5 to give highly fluorescent derivatives that were measured at 481 nm using an excitation wavelength of 351 nm. The fluorescence intensity was directly proportional to the concentration over the range 40–200 ng mL⁻¹ and 100–1,200 ng mL⁻¹ for method A and B, respectively. Successful applications of the developed methods, for the drug determination in pharmaceutical preparations and spiked plasma samples, were performed.