Sensitive and selective spectrophotometric assay of gabapentin in capsules using sodium 1, 2-naphthoquinone-4-sulfonate

A simple, sensitive, and selective spectrophotometric method has been developed for the determination of gabapentin (GBP) in capsules. The method is based on the reaction of GBP and sodium 1,2-naphthoquinone-4-sulfonate (NQS) in the presence of Clark and Lubs buffer of pH 11 to form an orange-coloured product which was measured at 495 nm. The parameters that affect the reaction were carefully optimized and under the optimized conditions, linear relationship was obtained in the concentration range of 7.5-75 mu g ml(-1) GBP. The molar absorptivity, limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) and Sandell sensitivity are also reported. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of GBP in capsules with good accuracy and precision and without detectable interference from common excipients. The reliability of the proposed method was further established by parallel determination by the reference method and also by recovery studies. The reaction mechanism is proposed and discussed. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.