A rapid derivative spectrophotometric method for simultaneous determination of naphazoline and antazoline in eye drops

A zero-crossing first-derivative spectrophotometric method is applied for the simultaneous determination of naphazoline hydrochloride and antazoline phosphate in eye drops. The measurements were carried out at wavelengths of 225 and 252 nm for naphazoline hydrochloride and antazoline phosphate, respectively. The method was found to be linear (r2>0.999) in the range of 0.2-1 microg/ml for naphazoline hydrochloride in the presence of 5 microg/ml antazoline phosphate at 225 nm. The same linear correlation (r2>0.999) was obtained in the range of 1-10 microg/ml of antazoline phosphate in the presence of 0.5 microg/ml of naphazoline hydrochloride at 252 nm. The limit of determination was 0.2 microg/ml and 1 microg/ml for naphazoline hydrochloride and antazoline phosphate, respectively. The method was successfully used for simultaneous analysis of naphazoline hydrochloride and antazoline phosphate in eye drops without any interference from excipients and prior separation before analysis.