Application of 3-methylbenzothiazolin-2-one hydrazone for the quantitative spectrophotometric determination of oxcarbazepine in pharmaceuticals with cerium(IV) and periodate

Two simple, sensitive, selective, accurate, and cost-effective spectrophotometric methods are described for the assay of oxcarbazepine (OXC) in bulk drug and in tablets. The methods are based on an oxidative coupling reaction involving OXC, 3-methylbenzothiazolin-2-one hydrazone (MBTH), and cerium(IV) sulfate at pH 4.28 ± 0.07 (method A) or sodium periodate at pH > 4.0 (method B) to form an orange colored product with an absorption maximum at 450 nm. Under optimized experimental conditions, the calibration graphs are linear over the ranges of 4–80 and 2–32 μg/ml for methods A and B, respectively, with correlation coefficient (r) values of 0.9984 and 0.9976. The apparent molar absorptivity values are 3.13⋅10³ and 9.13⋅10³ l/mol⋅cm for methods A and B, respectively. The other optical characteristics such as Sandell’s sensitivity, limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) values are also reported. The accuracy and precision of the methods were evaluated based on intra-day and inter-day variations. The proposed methods were successfully applied to the determination of OXC in tablets: the results were comparable with the published data obtained using the reference method. The reaction stoichiometry of OXC with MBTH (1:1 in method A and 1:2 in method B) was also evaluated using the limiting logarithmic method, and a possible reaction pathway is presented for the both methods.