Spectrophotometric Determination of Phenytoin Sodium in Pure and Pharmaceutical Preparations

Abstract.

 Phenytoin sodium reacts with o-nitrobenzoic acid in alkaline media after heating for 10 minutes at 70 °C, to give a red coloured complex having maximum absorbance at 510 nm. The reaction is selective for phenytoin sodium with 0.01 mg/10 mL as visual limit of quantitation and provides a basis for a new spectrophotometric determination. The colour reaction obeys Beer’s law from 0.01 mg to 3 mg/10 mL of phenytoin sodium and the relative standard deviation is 0.29%. The quantitative assessment of tolerable amounts of other drugs is also studied.