RESUMO
Background: Acquiring sophisticated LC instruments by most third world laboratories is capital intensive.Literatures on simple spectrophotometric analytical methods for pefloxacin are scarce. Objectives: The present study was undertaken to develop and validate a simple and economic UV spectrophotometric method for estimating pefloxacin mesylate (PFM) in dosage preparations.Methods: Using a JENWAY spectrophotometer at predetermined emax of 277nm with 1 v/v aqueous glacialacetic acid as blank; the method was validated for linearity; accuracy; precision; reproducibility; and specificity asper International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) guidelines and used to determine the content of pefloxacinin seven marketed brands in Nigeria. Results: The method exhibited good linearity over a range of 0.40-12.0 ?g/ml (regression equation: y = 0.0859x+0.0211 ; r=0.999). Mean recovery accuracy (99.183 ) and assay result in the range of 100.5- 110.17 for these lected brands were not significantly different at p=0.05. The coefficient of variation (CV) for both intra andinter-day were below 7 . The method was specific for pefloxacin in the presence of common excipients Conclusion: The method gave good validation results and could be employed for routine analysis of PFM incommercial formulations