Investigation of ketoconazole copper(II) and cobalt(II) complexes and their spectrophotometric applications

Ketoconazole, as a ligand, reacts quantitatively with copper(II) and cobalt(II) to form blue-colored, stable complexes in dichloromethane. These complexes can be spectrophotometrically measured at 720 and 612.5 nm in the case of Cu(II) or Co(II), respectively. Different factors affecting the reaction such as pH, reagent concentration, solvent effect, and time were studied. By using Job's method of continuous variation, the stoichiometry of the reaction was found to be in the ratio of 1:2, metal:drug, with Cu(II) and Co(II). The stability of the complexes formed was also studied. The reaction products were isolated for further investigation. The complexes have apparent molar absorptivities of 35.36 +/- 1.95 and 59.62 +/- 1.87 for Cu(II) and Co(II), respectively. Suggested procedures based on the stoichiometric reaction were successfully applied to the analysis of the pure drug and its pharmaceutical formulations. The validity of the procedures was further ascertained by the method of standard additions. The developed method was found to be simple, accurate, and precise when compared with the official method of the British Pharmacopoeia.