Development and validation of a rapid turbidimetric assay to determine the potency of norfloxacin in tablets

Norfloxacin is one of the first commercially available (and most widely used) fluoroquinolone antibiotics. This paper reports the development and validation of a simple, sensitive, accurate and reproducible turbidimetric assay method to quantify norfloxacin in tablets formulations in only 4 hours. The bioassay is based on the inhibitory effect of norfloxacin upon the strain of Staphylococcus epidermidis ATCC 12228 IAL 2150 used as test microorganism. The assay was performed 3x3 parallel lines like, three tubes for each concentration of reference substance and three tubes for each sample concentration. The results were treated statistically by analysis of variance and were found to be linear (r2 = 0.9999) in the selected range of 25–100 μg mL-1; precise (intra-assay: relative standard deviation (RSD) = 1.33%; inter-assay: RSD = 0.21%), accurate (100.74%) and robust with RSD lower than 4.5%. The student’s t-test showed no statistically significant difference between the proposed turbidimetric method and an HPLC method previously validated. However the turbidimetric assay can be used as a valuable alternative methodology for the routine quality control of this medicine, complementary to other physical-chemical methods.