Application of mixed cosolvency concept in spectrophotometric estimation of acyclovir tablets

The present study was aimed to develop a novel mixed cosolvency solubilization technique to increase the solubility of poorly water soluble drugs. This technique is used to estimate the amount of acyclovir in bulk drug and tablets by spectrophotometric method in the mixture of solvents 15% urea, 8% PEG 400 and 7% hydroxy propyl β-Cyclodextrin. Beer’s law was obeyed in the concentration range of 2-20μg/ml and showed maximum absorbance at 251nm. The solubility of acyclovir in distilled water was found to be 0.525mg/ml, where as in this solvent mixture was found to be 6 mg/ml. Hence the solubility was increased by 12 folds as compared with distilled water. The analysis of tablets indicated good correlation between estimated and label claim. The results of recovery study revealed that any small change in the drug concentration in the solution could be accurately determined by the proposed method. The low values of LOD and LOQ of acyclovir in the solvent mixture indicated good sensitivity of proposed method. As urea, PEG 400 and HP-βCD were cheaper than most of the organic solvents, these can be used as a substitute for organic solvents. The study proved that mixed cosolvency phenomenon is an effective technique in enhancement of aqueous solubility of poorly water soluble drugs. The proposed method is new, simple, accurate, non-toxic and precise method that can be successfully employed for estimation of drugs in routine analysis of tablets

Author(s): V. Gurumurthy, R. Deveswaran , S. Bharath, B. V. Basavaraj and V. Madhavn

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