Greenness assessment of continuous FIA-spectrophotometric method for quantitation of oxymetazoline in bulk and pharmaceutical forms

Abstract

An accurate and cost-effective method utilizing continuous flow injection spectroscopy has been developed for analyzing oxymetazoline hydrochloride in pharmaceutical and bulk powder forms. This new method involves reacting drug in an alkaline solution with diazotized 4-chloroaniline to produce an orange dye with a maximum absorption at λ_max of 483 nm. The flow injection analysis approach was extensively studied in terms of both chemical and physical characteristics to achieve high sensitivity. Within a concentration range of 50-150 μg/mL and a detection limit of 10.4 μg/mL, oxymetazoline hydrochloride follows Beer's law when the experimental variables are optimized. The method's effectiveness was confirmed by achieving high reproducibility of less than 2% (n = 5). A statistical analysis comparing the proposed method to the standard spectrophotometric technique using F and t tests shown no significant differences in accuracy and precision. Additionally, the analytical greenness assessment and the green analytical procedure index were applied to assess the method's greenness and the results demonstrated that the flow injection analysis method satisfies the criteria of green analytical methodologies.

KEY WORDS: Flow injection analysis, Diazotization reaction, 4-Chloroaniline, Oxymetazoline hydrochloride

Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2025, 39(2), 215-226.                                                           

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v39i2.3