Spectrofluorimetric determination of oseltamivir phosphate through derivatization with o‐phthalaldehyde. Application to pharmaceutical preparations with a preliminary study on spiked plasma samples

A simple and sensitive spectrofluorimetric method has been developed and validated for the determination of oseltamivir phosphate (OST) in pharmaceutical preparations. The method is based on the reaction between oseltamivir phosphate and o‐phthalaldehyde in presence of 2‐mercapto‐ethanol in borate buffer, pH 10.8, to give a highly fluorescent product measured at 450 nm after excitation at 336 nm. The different experimental parameters affecting the development and stability of the reaction product were studied and optimized. The fluorescence intensity–concentration plot is rectilinear over the range 0.05–1.0 µg/mL, with a lower detection limit of 5 ng/mL and limit of quantitation of 16 ng/mL. The developed method was successfully applied to the analysis of the drug in its commercial capsules and suspension, mean recoveries of OST were 99.97 ± 1.67% and 100.17 ± 1.18%, respectively (n = 3). Statistical comparison of the results obtained by the proposed and comparison method revealed no significant difference in the performance of the two methods regarding accuracy and precision. The proposed method was further extended to in vitro determination of the studied drug in spiked human plasma as a preliminary investigation; the mean recovery (n = 3) was 98.68 ± 5.8%. A reaction pathway was postulated. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.