Spectrofluorimetric determination of paracetamol in pharmaceuticals and biological fluids

A spectrofluorimetric method for the determination of paracetamol is presented, based on the oxidation of the analyte to give the fluorophore 2,2'-dihydroxy-5,5'-diacetyldiaminebiphenyl. Sodium hypochlorite was used as an oxidizing reagent and the optimum pH was found to be 10.0 (sodium carbonate-boric acid buffer solution). The linear concentration range of application was 0.1-100.0 micrograms ml-1 of paracetamol, the detection limit 0.01 micrograms ml-1 and the relative standard deviation 1.2%. The method has been satisfactorily applied to the determination of paracetamol in pharmaceutical formulations and biological fluids.