Highly sensitive spectrofluorimetric procedure for the assay of phenothiazine derivatives in the presence of their sulfoxide oxidized product.

A validated straightforward and sensitive spectrofluorimetric procedure was developed to assay trifluoperazine hydrochloride, promethazine hydrochloride, and perazine maleate. The procedure was dependent on oxidation of the investigated phenothiazines using a known excess of ammonium cerium sulfate as oxidizing agent and overseeing the fluorescence intensity of the resultant Ce3+ ion as the product of this reaction at λcx = 254 nm. and λem = 355 nm. Various parameters controlling the reaction were investigated and optimized. Linear calibration graphs were found in the general concentration range 5-30 ng/ml with a general correlation coefficient range 0.9994-0.9995. Limits of detection were 0.97, 0.70 and 0.56 ng/ml, whereas limits of quantification were 3.24, 2.12 and 1.89 ng/ml for trifluoperazine hydrochloride, promethazine hydrochloride and perazine maleate, respectively. The procedure was implemented successfully for analyses of the cited drugs in their trade dosage preparations such as tablets and syrups. The effect of possible interference from common excipients and their sulfoxide oxidized product was studied and the procedure showed good recovery of the drugs under study in their available dosage preparations. The possible effect of structure variation of the studied drugs on the experimental conditions and sensitivity observed with each one was also discussed.