Spectrophotometric Determination of Lamotrigine in Pharmaceutical Preparations and Urine Samples Using Bromothymol Blue and Bromophenol Blue

Two simple and sensitive spectrophotometric methods have been developed for the determination of the antiepileptic drug lamotrigine (LMT) in pharmaceutical preparations and urine samples. The methods are based on the interaction of LMT with two sulphonphthalein dyes, namely, bromothymol blue (BTB) and bromophenol blue (BPB) in dichloromethane (DCM) medium to form stable and yellow-colored ion-pairs with λmax 410 and 413 nm respectively. The ion-pair LMT-BPB has been extracted from aqueous solutions at pH 3.25±0.25 using DCM; while LMT-BTB ion-pair was directly prepared in DCM. Interferences from the compounds of the urine samples, in case of LMT-BPB were removed using a suppressing solution (S.S.) prepared from the salts of the interfering ions. In LMT-BTB method, the urine of normal person not taking LMT, was used as a blank to remove the effect of interferences. Under optimum conditions, the calibration curve of LMT-BTB was linear over the range of 1-12 μg.ml-1, ε=1.97x104 L.mole-1.cm-1, r2 = 0.9983, and D.L of 0.13 μg.ml-1. The corresponding values for (LMT-BPB) ion-pair were 0.5-12 μg.ml-1 linear range, ε=1.92x104, r2= 0.9980, and D.L= 0.24 μg.ml-1. The stoichiometry of the ion-pairs were found to be 1:1, based on Jobs, mole ratio and slope ratio methods. The recoveries (%R) for both methods were in the range of 97-101.8 % and 95-97.1 % with RSD≤1.68 and 3.1 % respectively. For LMT- spiked urine samples, the recoveries were 98.5-106.6 % with RSD≤1.66 %. Interferences from phenobarbital and carbamazepine were in the range of 25-40 folds. Statistical comparison of the results with a published method using F and t-tests showed no significant differences between each of the two methods and the reported one at 95 % confidence level. A standard addition method, gave high accuracy with LMT-BPB method. The proposed methods were successfully applied for the determination of LMT in pharmaceutical preparation and urine samples. (author)