Spectrophotometric Determination of Oxymetazoline Hydrochloride Based on the Oxidation Reactions

Simple, sensitive and reproducible spectrophotometric method was developed for determination of oxymetazoline hydrochloride in pure as well as in pharmaceutical drop formulations. The method is based on the reduction of ferric to ferrous ions followed by complexation with 1,10-phenanthroline to produce an orange red chromogen that has maximum absorption at 510 nm and obeyed Beer's linearity in the concentration range of 0.1-7 mu g/ml, with molar absorptivity 5.74x10(4) l.mol(-1)cm(-1), accuracy (average recovery %) 100.53 % and precision better than 1.6. The developed method was successfully applied to the determination of oxymetazoline hydrochloride in bulk and pharmaceutical formulations without any interference from common excipients.