Spectrophotometric determination of metronidazole and secnidazole in pharmaceutical preparations.

A rapid and sensitive spectrophotometric method is proposed for determination of metronidazole and secnidazole. The method depends on the reduction of metronidazole and secnidazole molecule with zinc dust and hydrochloric acid flowed by diazotization and coupling with 8-quinolinol to give red colored chromogens easily measured spectrophotometrically which has lambda(max) = 500 nm. The experimental conditions were optimized and Berr's law was obeyed over the applicable concentration ranges both techniques were applied successfully to a wide variety of pharmaceutical preparations.

Cynthichlorine: a bioactive alkaloid from the tunicate Cynthia savignyi.

From ether extracts of the tunicate Cynthia savignyi, collected in Morocco, a new alkaloid-cynthichlorine-has been isolated. The structure of cynthichlorine has been characterized by extensive 2D-NMR data. Cynthichlorine possesses antifungal activity against two tomato pathogenic fungi: Botrytis cinerea and Verticillium albo atrum and antibacterial activity against Agrobacterium radiobacter, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and cytotoxicity against Artemia salina larvae.