Spectrophotometric determination of procaine hydrochloride using oxidative coupling and cloud point extraction

A method with rapid, sensitive, accurate, and selective for estimation of local anesthetic procaine hydrochloride (PRO.HCl) is crucial, due to its bad damage to health if administrated excessively. In this work two spectrophotometric methods oxidative coupling and cloud point extraction (CPE) were utilized for determination of PRO.HCl in its standard state and pharmaceutical preparations. Method A, based on the oxidative coupling reaction using sodium hypochlorite as an oxidant and 2,5-dimethylphenol as coupling agent. The blue colored product has high absorption at 600 nm. Method B based on the CPE relying on the previous reaction, with addition of Triton X-114, after extracting the colored product, it was measured at 630 nm. Beer’s law of both methods are linear in the concentration ranges 2.50-50 µg/mL (method A) and 1.25-3.75 µg/mL (method B). The molar absorptivity coefficients of methods (A) and (B) are 4.01 x 103 and 1.34 x 104 L/mol.cm, respectively. For (method A) limit of detection and limit of quantification were calculated and found that 0.26 µg/mL and 0.87 µg/mL, respectively, while for (method B) were found to be 0.16 and 0.54 µg/mL, respectively. Both methods (A and B) are applied to evaluate PRO.HCl in pharmaceutical preparations (injection). KEY WORDS: Cloud point extraction, 2,5-Dimethylphenol reagent, Odxiative-coupling, Procaine-hydrochloride, Spectrophotometry, Triton X-114. Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2025, 39(1), 1-13. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v39i1.1