ABSTRACT
The spectrophotometric multi-component analysis involves spectrum recording and mathematical equations. However, spectral interference poses a major limitation when mixture samples are encountered. To overcome this derivative spectrophotometry (DS) has been introduced for the resolution of overlapping peaks. In this review modified methods like derivative quotient spectra, double divisor ratio spectra derivative method, double divisor means centering of ratio spectra method, derivative subtraction coupled with the constant multiplication method (DS-CM), amplitude subtraction (AS), modified amplitude subtraction (MAS), amplitude factor method (P-Factor), amplitude modulation method (AM), amplitude summation method (A-Sum), simultaneous derivative ratio spectrophotometry (S1DD), derivative compensation ratio via regression equation, differential dual wavelength (D1 DWL), differential derivative ratio (D1DR), successive derivative subtraction method (SDS) and derivative transformation (DT) of derivative spectrophotometry theories and applications are reviewed. These methods were applied to solve different complex pharmaceuticals mixtures. These developed methods were simple and cost-effective.