Abstract

A simple and fast method was developed for the simultaneous determination of dapsone and pyrimethamine by first-order digital derivative spectrophotometry. Acetonitrile was used as a solvent to extract the drugs from the pharmaceutical formulations, and the samples were subsequently evaluated directly by digital derivative spectrophotometry. The simultaneous determination of both drugs was performed by the zero-crossing method at 249.4 and 231.4 nm for dapsone and pyrimethamine, respectively. The best signal-to-noise ratio was obtained when the first derivative of the spectrum was used. The linear range of determination for the drugs was from 6.6 × 10-7 to 2.0 × 10-4 and from 2.5 × 10-6 to 2.0 × 10-4 mol/L for dapsone and pyrimethamine, respectively. The excipients of commercial pharmaceutical formulations did not interfere in the analysis. Chemical and spectral variables were optimized for determination of both analytes. A good level of repeatability, 0.6 and 1.7% for dapsone and pyrimethamine, respectively, was observed. The proposed method was applied for the simultaneous determination of both drugs in pharmaceutical formulations.