Rafidain Journal of Science

Abstract

A sensitive and rapid spectrophotometric method was suggested for the estimation of acetylcysteine in its pharmaceutical formulations. The proposed method was depended on the oxidation of the studied drug compound by iron (III) in aqueous medium, and then reaction of produced iron (II) with bathophenanthroline reagent to form a red color complex, which is stable and soluble in water and exhibits a maximum absorption at 534 nm. Beer^̛̛s law is obeyed over the concentration range of 0.25 to 10.0 µg.ml^-1 of acetylcysteine. The apparent molar absorptivity value is 2.35×10⁴ l.mol^-1.cm^-1 and Sandall^’s sensitivity index of 0.00694 µg.cm^{-2, a relative error of}                  -4.72 to 4.32% and a relative standard deviation of 0.627 to 3.54% depending on the concentration level. The proposed method was applied successfully to the determination of acetylcysteine in its pharmaceutical preparations as sachet (powder), capsule and injection.