Abstract

Quantitative analysis of poorly water-soluble drugs involves use of various organic solvents. Major drawbacks of organic solvents include high cost, volatility and toxicity. Safety of analyzer is affected by toxicity of the solvent used. Sodium benzoate is one of the widely used hydrotropic agents and has demonstrated the enhancement in aqueous solubilities of a large number of poorly water-soluble drugs. In the present investigation 2 M sodium benzoate solution has been used as hydrotropic solubilizing agent for three poorly water-soluble, non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs ibuprofen, flurbiprofen and naproxen. There were more than 80, 110 and 120 fold enhancements in the solubilities of ibuprofen, flurbiprofen and naproxen, respectively in 2 M sodium benzoate solution as compared to solubilities in distilled water. Therefore, 2 M sodium benzoate solution was employed to solubilize these drugs to carryout their titrimetric analyses. These drugs have been analyzed successfully in basic drug samples and in solid dosage forms. Proposed method is new, simple, economic, safe, rapid, accurate and reproducible. The results of analysis obtained by the proposed methods compared well with those obtained by corresponding pharmacopoeial methods. Recovery studies and statistical data proved the accuracy, reproducibility and the precision of the proposed methods. Presence of sodium benzoate did not interfere in analysis.