Spectrophotometric determination of metoclopramide hydrochloride in bulk and in pharmaceutical preparations

Abstract

A rapid, simple, reproducible and sensitive spectrophotometric method for
assay of metoclopramide hydrochloride was investigated. The method is based on the
interaction of metoclopramide hydrochloride with 2,4-dinitro-1-flourobenzene reagent
to give a highly coloured species with maximum absorption at 315 nm in aqueous
solution in the presence of sodium hydroxide. Beer's law was obeyed in the range of
1.0-28 μg/ml with a molar absorptivity of 8.007×103 l.mol-1.cm-1 and the limit of
detection was 0.01858 μg/ml. The accuracy (average recovery %) was 101.45 % and
the relative standard deviation (RSD) was better than 1.3%. Also, it was found that
the product formed was in ratio of 1:1 species with stability constant of 2.975×106
L/mol. The method was applied successfully to the assay of metoclopramide
hydrochloride in pharmaceutical formulations and was agreed well with its certified
value and with those of standard addition and British pharmacopoeia methods.