Quantitative Analysis of Some Analgesics Used in Maiduguri Metropolis Using Ultra Violet Spectrophotometry

Abstract

Paracetamol and diclofenac sodium are common over-the-counter
analgesics which are accessible to the general population. The aim of
this work was to assay paracetamol and diclofenac sodium content in
samples selected across the Maiduguri metropolis using UV
spectrophotometric method. 15 samples each of paracetamol tablet,
paracetamol syrup and diclofenac sodium tablet were randomly
selected from three different sources; hospital pharmacy, community
pharmacy and drug patent stores. Wavelength of 257 nm was adopted
for paracetamol samples assay while 276 nm was adopted for
diclofenac sodium samples. Percentage mg content for paracetamol
tablets ranged from 37-73%, 18-104% for paracetamol syrups and 77-
95% for diclofenac sodium tablets. According to the USP none of the
paracetamol tablet samples passed, 12 out of 15 paracetamol syrup
samples passed and 8 out of 15 diclofenac sodium tablet samples
passed (USP acceptance range is 90-110%). Statistical significance
was observed between class of drug and percentage mg content (pvalue < 0.05) but no significance between source of drug and
percentage mg content (p-value > 0.05) when the findings were
subjected to ANOVA.