Sodium diethyldithiocarbamate as a spectrophotometric reagent for the determination of chloral hydrate

Chloral hydrate reacts with sodium diethyldithiocarbamate to give an orange-red colour after heating at 100 degreesC for 3 min. having maximum absorbance at 450 nm. The reaction is selective for chloral hydrate with 0.01 mg/10 ml as visual limit of quantitation and provides a basis for a new spectrophotometeric determination. The reaction obeys Beer's Law from 0.01 to 3 mg/10 ml of chloral hydrate and the relative standard deviation is 0.68%. The quantitative assessment of tolerable amounts of other drugs like aldomet. benzodiazepines, phenytoin sodium, phenobarbitone and naproxen are also studied.