Spectrophotometric determination of isoniazid in presence of its hydrazones

A spectrophotometric determination of isoniazid in the presence of its hydrazones was developed. The method involves the reaction between isoniazid and 2,3-dichloro-1,4-naphthoquinone in the presence of ammonia in an ethanolic medium. The colored product has an absorbance maxium at 640 nm. The Lambert-Beer law is obeyed in the 1--14-microgram/ml range. The proposed method was applied to the analysis of isoniazid tablets. In commercial tablets, hydrazone formation due to the reaction between isoniazid and lactose was detected by TLC. The analysis of lactose-containing isoniazid tablets showed 10--22% lower recovery than that obtained by the official method. Hydrazone formation in tablets probably interferes with isoniazid bioavailability.