Spectrophotometric Determination of Nevirapine Following its Reaction with Sodium Nitropruside and Acetic Anhydride

Abstract

SUMMARY. Nevirapine is an antiretroviral agent that belongs to the class of non-nucleoside reverse-tran- scriptase inhibitors (NRTI’s) used in the management of HIV infection in adults. This study is aimed at developing and validating three simple, sensitive and cost-effective spectrophotometric methods for ascer- taining its quality. Nevirapine was determined spectrophotometrically at 290 nm after dissolution in chlo- roform (Method I). The drug was also derivatized by its reaction with sodium nitroprusside and hydroxy- lamine (Method II) to form a yellow coloured complex (absorption maximum, 440 nm) which was assayed to quantitatively evaluate its content in the formulation. The drug was further assayed by its condensation with citric acid-acetic anhydride (Method III) to form a red coloured complex (absorption maximum, 360 nm) which was similarly quantified. Recovery experiments carried out by the proposed methods showed that Method I gave a mean recovery of 100.5 ± 1.66 % while complexation with sodium nitroprusside and hydroxylamine (Method II) gave 101.9 ± 2.03 % recovery. The technique of complexation with citric acid- acetic anhydride (Method III) similarly gave 100.6 ± 0.96 % mean recovery. These results show that the proposed methods are accurate, precise and sensitive. In addition to being simple and cost-effective, they can also be used conveniently to monitor the quality of Nevirapine in resource poor settings where HPLC, which is the official method of choice, may not be readily available.