Direct Determination of Azathioprine in Human Fluids and Pharmaceutical Formulation Using Flow Injection Chemiluminescence Analysis

A simple, sensitive and inexpensive flow injection chemiluminescence method for the determination of azathioprine had been discovered. It was based on the fact that the weak chemiluminescent reaction of cerium(IV) with azathioprine in acidic medium, which was enhanced by the addition of rhodamine 6G. A lot of optimized experimental conditions had been studied in detail. The CL intensity was linearly related to the concentration of azathioprine in the range of 0.1–10.0 μM and the detection limit was 45.0 nM (3σ). The relative standard deviation (RSD) for the technique was 2.1% (n = 11). The method had high selectivity, sensitivity and good repeatability. The proposed method had been triumphantly applied to the determination of azathioprine in human fluids and pharmaceutical formulation with satisfactory results.