SENSITIVE AND SELECTIVE SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC DETERMINATION OF SERTRALINE IN PHARMACEUTICALS USING PICRIC ACID

An accurate and precise visible spectrophotometric method is presented for the determination of sertraline in pharmaceutical formulation. Sertraline forms a yellow colored product in the presence of picric acid in chloroform and the absorbance of yellow colored species formed was measured at 415 nm against reagent blank and Beer’s law was obeyed in the concentration range of 3 to 95 μg/mL. The amount of sertraline present in the sample was computed from calibration curve. Result of percentage recovery and placebo interference shows that the method was not affected by the presence of common excipients. The percentages assay of sertraline in tablet was more than 99%. The method was validated by determining its sensitivity, accuracy and precision which proves suitability of the developed method for the routine estimation of sertraline in bulk and solid dosage form.