CHEMILUMINESCENCE DETERMINATION OF ETOPOSIDE

Abstract

A rapid method by chemiluminescence is described for the determination of etoposide. The method is based on the chemiluminescence reaction with potassium permanganate in sulfuric acid medium. The optimum conditions for the chemiluminescence emission were investigated. With the integrated chemiluminescence intensity for 5s after KMnO₄injection as a quantitative parameter, etoposide can be determined over the concentration range 5–5000 ng/ml with a detection limit of 2 ng/ml and with a RSD (n = 10) of 1.0% and 1.5% at levels of 1000 and 100 ng/ml, respectively. The method was applied to the determination of etoposide in pharmaceutical preparations.

Keywords:

• Etoposide
• Chemiluminescence
• Potassium permanganate
• Pharmaceutical analysis

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported by a financial contribution to scientific research (F.A.R.) assigned by the Università degli Studi di Pavia for 1999 and 2000.