[The photodegradation-assay method of sodium nitroprusside and its application to studies on percutaneous absorption]

A new method of quantitative analysis of sodium nitroprusside (SNP) was developed according to the principle of a photodegradation analytical method that has been reported by the authors previously. After irradiated of solution of SNP under fluorescent lamp, the increase in absorbance at 394 nm belonged to nonlinear kinetics, but the absorbance increment with concentration was linear in certain concentration range of SNP. When irradiated for 30 min or 60 min, SNP in solution can be quantitated accurately by delta A394. The standard curve of this method was linear from 50 to 1000 mg/L. The within-day and day-to-day precisions (RSD) were 1.9% and 2.6% respectively, with recoveries of 99.0-100.1%. No interference from small amount of serum protein, stearyl alcohol, propylene glycol, azone, m-nifedipine, nitrendipine and verapamil was observed. This method has been successfully applied to study percutaneous absorption.