Derivative spectrophotometric methods for the determination of escitalopram oxalate (an antidepressant)

Abstract

Introduction: Escitalopram oxalate is an antidepressant drug. FDA has given approval for the treatment of major depressive disorder in adolescents and adults. New spectrophotometric techniques have been proposed for the determination of Escitalopram oxalate in sodium acetate buffer, borate buffer, and phosphate buffer (pH 6.8). Materials and Methods: Double beam UV-VIS spectrophotometer (SHIMADZU Model UV-1800) was used for the present study. Zero-order and first-order derivative spectrophotometric techniques have been developed for the determination of Escitalopram oxalate in sodium acetate buffer, borate buffer, and phosphate buffer. Results and Discussion: Escitalopram oxalate has shown absorption maxima at 238 nm in all the methods and linearity was observed 1.0–60 μg/ml in all the reagents such as sodium acetate buffer, borate buffer, and phosphate buffer and the methods were validated as per the ICH guidelines. Conclusions: These methods are simple, economical and can be successfully applied for the estimation of Escitalopram oxalate in pharmaceutical dosage forms.