SODIUM DIETHYLDITHIOCARBAMATE AS A SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC REAGENT FOR THE DETERMINATION OF CHLORAL HYDRATE

Abstract

Chloral hydrate reacts with sodium diethyldithiocarbamate to give an orange-red colour after heating at 100°C for 3 min. having maximum absorbance at 450 nm. The reaction is selective for chloral hydrate with 0.01 mg/10 ml as visual limit of quantitation and provides a basis for a new spectrophotometeric determination. The reaction obeys Beer's Law from 0.01 to 3 mg/10 ml of chloral hydrate and the relative standard deviation is 0.68%. The quantitative assessment of tolerable amounts of other drugs like aldomet, benzodiazepines, phenytoin sodium, phenobarbitone and naproxen are also studied.

Keywords:

• Sodium diethyldithiocarbamate
• Chloral hydrate
• Spectrophotometer

Acknowledgments