Turbidimetric Determination of Mebeverine Hydrochloride in Pharmaceutical Formulations Using Two Consecutive Detection Zones under Continuous Flow Conditions

A simple, low cost and rapid flow injection turbidimetric method was developed and validated for mebeverine hydrochloride (MBH) determination in pharmaceutical preparations. The developed method is based on forming of a white, turbid ion-pair product as a result of a reaction between the MBH and sodium persulfate in a closed flow injection system where the sodium persulfate is used as precipitation reagent. The turbidity of the formed complex was measured at the detection angle of 180° (attenuated detection) using NAG dual&Solo (0-180°) detector which contained dual detections zones (i.e., measuring cells 1 & 2). The increase in the turbidity of the complex was directly proportional to the increase of the MBH concentration in the range of 2.0-10 µmol/L with a limit of detection 0.35 µmol/L, 0.9981 (R2), and 2.0-12 µmol/L with a limit of detection 0.4 µmol/L and 0.9973 (R2) for measuring cells 1 and 2, respectively. The intra-day precision for three serial estimations of 5.0 and 9.0 µmol/L of MBH exhibited an RSD % of 0.23 % and 0.77 % and 0.68 % and 0.13 %, for cell 1 & 2, respectively. While the inter-day precision for three serials of three days exhibited an RSD % of 0.03 % and 0.77 % and 0.11 % and 0.07 %, for measuring cells 1 & 2, respectively. The accuracy of the developed method has expressed as an error % (E%) and a Rec % (recovery percentage), which was between 100.35 to 101.15 and 99.70 to 101.56 for cell 1 and cell 2, respectively. The present flow injection method has shown no interference effect from the common excipients and permits quantitively determination of 60 samples per hour. The developed method was successfully applied for the quantitative determination of MBH in different tablets containing 135 mg with excellent recovery percentage.