Determination of procaine hydrochloride using flow injection inhibitory chemiluminescence

A new flow injection chemiluminescent method has been developed for the determination of procaine hydrochloride, based on the inhibition of the chemiluminescence reaction of luminol–hydrogen peroxide by procaine hydrochloride. The influence of several surfactants and β‐cyclodextrin on the chemiluminescence intensity were studied. It was found that β‐cyclodextrin enhanced the decrease in chemiluminescence intensity. The method is simple, convenient and sensitive, with a detection limit (3 σ) of 0.08 µg/mL. The decreased chemiluminescence intensity is linear, with the concentration of procaine hydrochloride in the range 0.2–100.0 µg/mL and 100.0–400.0 µg/mL. The relative standard deviation for 10 repeated measurements were 4.5% and 3.4% for 1.0 and 20.0 µg/mL procaine hydrochloride, respectively. The method has been successfully applied to the determination of procaine hydrochloride in injection solutions of this drug. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.