Spectrophotometric determination of metronidazole and tinidazole in pharmaceutical preparations

Sensitive and simple spectrophotometric methods for the determination of metronidazole (MNZ) and tinidazole (TNZ) in either pure form or in its pharmaceutical formulations are described. The first method is based on the interaction of 3-methylbenzothiazolin-2-one hydrazone (MBTH) with MNZ/TNZ (reduced drug) in presence of copper sulphate and pyridine in acidic medium. The resulting yellowish orange products have lambda(max) of 500 and 490 nm, respectively, for MNZ and TNZ and are stable for about 4 h. The second method describes the reaction between reduced diazotised drugs with N-(1-naphthyl)ethylenediamine dihydrochloride (NEDA) in neutral medium to yield pink products which have lambda(max) of 520 and 505 nm, respectively, for MNZ and TNZ, respectively. The products are stable for more than 24 h. Common excipients used as additives in pharmaceutical preparations do not interfere in the proposed method. Both the methods are highly reproducible and have been applied to a wide variety of pharmaceutical preparations and the results compare favourably with those of official methods.