Three simple, economic, selective and accurate and precise spectrophotometric methods are developed for determination of enrofloxacin (EFX) in pharmaceuticals. Method A is based on the measurement of absorbance of EFX in 0.1M HOAc at 315 nm. The ketoxime formation reaction has been employed in method B, in which the absorbance measurement of EFX oxime product at 275 nm is described. The third method (Method C) is indirect one and is based on the oxidation of EFX by cerium(IV), reaction of unreacted cerium(IV) with p-toludine (p-TD) and measurement of coloured solution at 540 nm. The Beer’s law is obeyed in
the concentration ranges of 1.2–24, 1–8, and 1–20 μg/mL EFX in methods A, B, and C, respectively, with the corresponding molar extinction coefficients of 1.52×104, 3.86×104, and 6.6×103 L/mol/cm. The regression coefficients of calibration lines are 0.9996, 0.9913, and –0.9965, in methods A, B, and C, respectively. The limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) have also been reported for each method. The methods have been validated to check accuracy, precision, robustness and ruggedness. The application of the methods proposed to determine EFX in tablets has been described and the results have been compared with a
standard method. The results of validation and application have been found to be with excellent agreement. The standard addition procedure has been adopted in recovery experiments to further ascertain the accuracy of the methods and the results of the experiments are well satisfied. The stability indicating ability of
Method A has been studied by subjecting EFX to acid and alkaline hydrolysis, oxidative, thermal and UV degradation followed by measurement of absorbance of resultant EFX solutions at 315 nm. The results of degradation study indicated unsusceptible nature of EFX to any of the stress conditions.