CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

The aim of this work was to develop a method for on line spectrofluorimetric quality control of naphazoline (NPZ) in pharmaceuticals and raw drugs. A combination of a flow injection analysis (FIA) system with micellar-enhanced fluorescence detection is presented as a powerful alternative for the rapid and sensitive analysis of naphazoline. Since NPZ shows low native fluorescence, the use of an anionic surfactant such as sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) provides a considerable enhancement of fluorescence intensity and the nature of the technique allows a possible and easy adaptation to a FIA system. Using ëexc = 280 nm and ëem = 326 nm, a good linear relationship (LOL) was obtained in the range of 0.003 to 10 mg mL-1 with a detection limit (LOD) of 3 x 10−4 mg mL−1 (S/N=3). Parameters related to the nature of the analytical signal and to the FIA manifold have been optimized. Satisfactory recoveries were obtained in the analysis of commercial pharmaceutical formulations. The proposed method is simple, accurate, allows for high speed sampling and considerably shorter analysis times. In addition, it requires inexpensive equipment and reagents, easy operation conditions and has no side effects, thus avoiding environmental pollution through toxic waste.