UV-Vis spectrophotometrical and analytical methodology for the determination of singlet oxygen in new antibacterials drugs.

We have determined and quantified spectrophotometrically the capacity of producing reactive oxygen species (ROS) as (1)O(2) during the photolysis with UV-A light of 5 new synthesized naphthyl ester derivates of well-known quinolone antibacterials (nalidixic acid (1), cinoxacin (2), norfloxacin (3), ciprofloxacin (4) and enoxacin (5)). The ability of the naphthyl ester derivatives (6-10) to generate singlet oxygen were detecting and for the first time quantified by the histidine assay, a sensitive, fast and inexpensive method. The following tendency of generation of singlet oxygen was observed: compounds 7 > 10 > 6 > 8 > 9 >> parent drugs 1-5.