Spectrophotometric determination of phenylephrine using P-aminophenol and potassium periodate

A fast and sensitive method has been developed for the determination of Phenylephrine hydrochloride [PE] in pharmaceutical preparations. The method is based on the reaction between PE and p-aminophenol [PAP] in presence of KIO[4] at pH 10. The absorbance of solution is measured at [lambda [max]] 640 nm. Beer's law is obeyed over the concentration range from 15 to 100 micro g ml[-1], and the extinction coefficient was calculated to be 1.01 x 10[3] 1 mol[-1] cm[-1]. The different analytical parameters have been investigated. The method has been successfully applied to determine PE in some pharmaceutical preparations