Spectrofluorimetric and spectrophotometric determination of pregabalin in capsules and urine samples

Three new, simple, sensitive and selective spectrofluorimetric and spectrophotometric methods were developed for the determination of the γ-amino-n-butyric acid derivative, pregabalin. Pregabalin as a primary amine reacts with fluorescamine to yield a fluorescent product (Method I), with 2,4-dinitrofluorobenzene (Method II) and 2,3,5,6-tetrachloro-1,4-benzoquinone (Method III) in aqueous alkaline buffered media to form colored products which could be measured spectrophotometrically. The optimum conditions for each reaction were ascertained and the methods were applied for the determination of pregabalin over the concentration range of 20-280 ng mL(-1) and 1-7 μg mL(-1) for spectrofluorimetry and spectrophotometry, respectively with good correlation (≥0.999). The limits of assays detection ranged from 9.6 × 10(-4) μg mL(-1) to 0.42 μg mL(-1) for spectrofluorimetry and spectrophotometry, respectively. The suggested methods were applied to the determination of the drug in capsules. No interference could be observed from the additives listed to be in capsules. Furthermore, the spectrofluorimetric method was extended to the in-vitro determination of pregabalin in spiked urine, interference from endogenous amino acids could be eliminated through selective complexation with copper acetate; the percentage recovery was found to be 98% ± 1.42 (n=6). Co- administered drugs such as chlordiazepoxide, clonazepam, diazepam, nitrazepam and lamotrigine did not interfere with the assay. The methods were validated with respect to linearity, accuracy, precision and robustness. The results obtained were determined to be in good agreement with those obtained using a previously reported method.