Spectrofluorimetric Protocol for Ceftriaxone in Commercial Formulation and Human Plasma After Condensation with Formaldehyde and Ethyl Acetoacetate

A new spectrofluorimetric method has been developed and validated for the quantification of ceftriaxone in bulk powder, pharmaceutical formulations and spiked human plasma. The developed method is reproducible, accurate, sensitive and cost effective. In this method, ceftriaxone was converted into a fluorescent compound by reacting with 0.8 M ethyl acetoacetate and 25% formaldehyde in a buffered medium (pH = 4.2) at 90 °C. The excitation and emission wavelengths of the fluorescent reaction product are 316 nm and 388 nm respectively. Optimization of the experimental conditions affecting the condensation reaction were carefully carried out and the optimum experimental conditions were incorporated in the procedure. The developed method has a broad linear range (0.2–20 μg mL⁻¹) with a correlation coefficient of 0.9992. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) was found to be 1.94 × 10⁻² μg mL⁻¹ and 6.47 × 10⁻² μg mL⁻¹ respectively. The common excipients and co-administered drugs were investigated for their interferences effect in the assay. The developed method was validated statistically through recovery studies and successfully applied to ceftriaxone determination in bulk powder, pharmaceutical formulations and spiked human plasma samples. The percent recoveries were found to be in the range of 99.04–100.26% for bulk powder, 98.88–99.92% for pharmaceutical formulations and 94.22–98.48% for spiked human plasma. The results were verified by comparing with reference literature HPLC method and were found in good agreement.