Spectrophotometric method for the determination of paracetamol and phenacetin

A rapid, sensitive and simple spectrophotometric method is proposed for the determination of hydrolysis products of paracetamol (PRL) and phenacetin (PHN) with sodium 1,2-naphthoquinone-4-sulphonate and cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTA) in alkaline medium. The absorbances are measured at 570 and 500 nm and the molar absorptivities found to be 1.118 x 10(4) and 4.54 x 10(3) l mol-1 cm-1 for PRL and PHN, respectively. The coloured species conforms to Beer's law over the range 1-20 micrograms ml-1 for PRL and 2-24 micrograms ml-1 of PHN. The sensitivity is enhanced by the addition of CTA. The method is successfully employed for determination of PRL or PHN in various pharmaceutical preparations and laboratory made tablets and results have been statistically compared with those obtained by the official method.