Determination of aceclofenac in bulk and pharmaceutical formulations

Three sensitive and reproducible methods for quantitative determination of aceclofenac (AC) in pure form and in pharmaceutical formulation are presented. The first method is based on the reaction between the drug via its secondary aromatic amino group and p-dimethylaminocinnamaldehyde (PDAC) in acidified methanol to give a stable coloured complex after heating at 75 degrees C for 20 min. Absorption measurements were carried out at 665.5 nm. Beer's law is obeyed over concentration range 20-100 microg ml(-1) with mean recovery 100.33 +/- 0.84. The other two methods are high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and densitometric methods by which the drug was determined in the presence of its degradation products over concentration range of 20-70 microg ml(-1) and 1-10 microg per spot and mean recoveries are 99.59 +/- 0.90 and 99.45 +/- 1.09, respectively.