Spectrophotometric determination of tetracyclines and cephalosporins with ammonium vanadate

A spectrophotometric method for the determination of some tetracyclines as well as some cephalosporins is described. The drug is boiled with ammonium vanadate solution in sulphuric acid medium for 10 min and the absorbance of the colour developed is measured at 750 nm. The proposed method can be successfully applied to the determination of tetracycline hydrochloride, oxytetracycline hydrochloride, doxycycline hyclate, demeclocycline hydrochloride, chlortetracycline hydrochloride, cephalothin sodium, cephaloridine and cephapirin sodium. These drugs can be determined either in pure form or in pharmaceutical preparations.