Spectrophotometric determination of pefloxacin mesylate in pharmaceuticals KANAKAPURA BASAVAIAH* HULLIKAL CHANDRASHEKAR PRAMEELA BANKAVADI CHIKKASWAMY SOMASHEKAR

to nalidixic acid. Chemically, PFM, is 1-ethyl-6-fluoro-1,4-dihydro-7-(4-methyl-1-peperazinyl)-4-oxo-3-quinolinecarboxylic acid, methane sulfonate dihydrate (Fig. 1). It is an antibacterial drug, which is highly effective against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive pathogens that are resistant to other antibacterials (1). The therapeutic importance of PFM has necessitated the development of analytical methods for its determination in dosage forms in compliance with good manufacturing standards. The drug is official in British and European Pharmacopoeias which describe a potentiometric non-aqueous titration procedure for its assay (2, 3). The drug has been determined in pharmaceutical formulations by a variety of analytical techniques such as UV-spectrophotometry (4, 5),