Development and application of spectrophotometric methods for the determination of citalopram hydrobromide in dosage forms

Study was carried out to develop two simple, fast, accurate and sensitive spectrophotometric methods (A and B) for the determination of citalopram hydrobromide in commercial tablet formulations. In method A, UV spectrophotometer determined the contents of citalopram hydrobromide in tablets at 240 nm in methanol solvent. The linear range was 5-40 microg ml-1 with molar absorptivity 1.4x10(4) l mol-1 cm-1. While the method B based on the reaction of citalopram base as n-electron donor with 2,3-dichloro-5,6-dicyano-1,4-benzoquinone as pi-acceptors to give highly colored complex species that absorb maximally at 590 nm. Beer's law was obeyed in the concentration limit of 10-250 microg ml-1 with molar absorptivity 3.3x10(3) l mol-1 cm-1 for citalopram hydrobromide. The limits of detection and limit of quantification was calculated and found to be 5.2 microg ml-1 and 17.4 microg ml-1 respectively. The proposed methods were found to be rapid, accurate, precise and sensitive for the determination of citalopram hydrobromide in commercial tablet formulations with out interferences from common additives encountered.