Determination of ethambutol in pharmaceutical preparations by atomic absorption spectrometry,spectrophotometry and potentiometry

Simple methods are described for the determination of ethambutol in pharmaceutical preparations. They are based on the reaction of the drug with copper phosphate suspension in a borate buffer of pH 9.2, whereby a blue 11 water-soluble copper-ethambutol complex is quantitatively formed. Four portions of the reaction solution are used for (i) measurement of copper by atomic-absorption spectrometry at 324.7 nm; (ii) potentiometric titration with EDTA with use of a solid-state copper ion-selective electrode; (iii) visual titration with EDTA (copper-PAN indicator); and (iv) spectrophotometric measurement of the copper-ethambutol complex at 640 nm. The results obtained are in good agreement and are better than those of the British Pharmacopoeia (BP) method.