New spectrophotometric methods for the determination of moxifloxacin in pharmaceutical formulations

Two rapid, simple and sensitive spectrophotometric methods for the quantitative analysis of moxifloxacin (MOX) in pharmaceutical formulations have been described. The first method (A) involves reaction of MOX with 1,2-naphthoquinone-4-sulphonate (NQS) in alkaline medium (pH 11.0) which results in an orange-coloured product exhibiting maximum absorption (lambda(max)) at 411 nm. The second method (B) is based on the oxidation of the MOX with a known excess of cerium (IV) sulfate and the residual oxidant is determined by treating with a fixed amount of methyl orange, and measuring the absorbance at 507 nm. The molar absorptivities for methods A and B were 4.9 x 10(3) and 6.5 x 10(4) L mol(-1) cm(-1), respectively. Under the optimized reaction conditions, Beer's law correlation of the absorbance with MOX concentration was obtained in the range of 2.5-20 and 0.5-30 microgmL(-1) for method A and B respectively. The intra-day precision expressed as relative standard deviation (RSD) was < 1.6% for both methods. The methods were validated in terms of accuracy and precision and were successfully applied to the determination of MOX in its pharmaceutical dosage form. The proposed methods are useful for routine analysis of MOX in quality control laboratories.