Application of first-derivative, ratio derivative spectrophotometry, TLC-densitometry and spectrofluorimetry for the simultaneous determination of telmisartan and hydrochlorothiazide in pharmaceutical dosage forms and plasma

Four sensitive methods are described for the direct determination of telmisartan (TELM) and hydrochlorothiazide (HCT) in combined dosage forms without prior separation. The first method is a first derivative spectophotometry (¹D) using a zero- crossing technique of measurement at 241.6 and 227.6 nm for TELM and HCT, respectively. The second method is the first derivative of ratio spectrophotometry (¹DD) where the amplitudes were measured at 242.7 nm for TELM and 274.9 nm for HCT.

The third method is based on TLC separation of the two drugs followed by the densitometric measurements of their spots at 295 and 225 nm for TELM and HCT, respectively. The separation was carried out on silica gel 60 F₂₅₄ using butanol: ammonia 25% (8:2 v/v) as mobile phase. The fourth method is spectrofluorimetric determination of TELM, depending on measuring the native fluorescence of the drug in 1 M sodium hydroxide at λ excitation 230 nm and emission at 365 nm. The proposed methods were applied successfully for the determination of the two drugs in bulk powder and in pharmaceutical formulations. The spectrofluorimetric method was utilized for the analysis of TELM in human plasma.