Quantitative Analysis of Nicorandil in Commercial Tablets by Spectrophotometry

The main aim of this work is to develop and validate a spectrophotometric method for the determination of nicorandil in commercial tablets. The method is based on the reduction of the nitroxy ethyl group of nicorandil into carbonyl compound and nitrite ion by NH₄Cl and Zn dust. The nitrite ion thus formed reacts with potassium iodide and starch in dilute HCl medium to form a blue product, which absorbs maximally at 550 nm. Beer's law is obeyed in the concentration range 0.4‐4.0 μg mL^?1 with molar absorptivity of 7.92 × 10⁴L mol^?1 cm^?1. The detection limit is 0.017 μg mL^?1. The reaction conditions are optimized and validated as per the International Conference on Harmonisation guidelines (USA). The proposed method has been applied successfully for the determination of nicorandil in commercial tablets. The results of analyses are compared statistically with those of the author's spectrophotometric method, which confirmed that there is no significant difference between the methods compared.