Abstract
This article presents the development of a direct, simple and sensitive spectrophotometric method for the quantitative analysis of mebendazole (MBz), an anthelmintic medication in its pure and pharmaceutical forms. The method is based on the charge transfer (CT) interactions between MBz, an electron donor, and chloranilic acid (CA), 3.5-dinitrosalicylic acid (DNSA), and picric acid (PA), (all of which are pi-acceptors). The products of the CT reactions exhibit new absorption bands at 409 and 310 nm for CA and DNSA in methanol, respectively, and at 402 nm for PA in dichloroethane. Following the optimization of the experimental conditions, linearity ranges for MBz concentrations of 2.00-120, 1.00-40.0 and 2.00-25.0 mu s mL(-1) were achieved for CA-MBz, DNSA-MBz, and PA-MBz, respectively. Furthermore, the limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) were calculated. The method was used to determine the MBz concentrations of tablets with good accuracy and precision and without interference from common tablet excipients.