Simultaneous determination of ceftriaxone and streptomycin in mixture by 'ratio-spectra' 2nd derivative and 'zero-crossing' 3rd derivative spectrophotometry.

Binary mixtures of antibiotics, ceftriaxone sulphate and streptomycin sodium, are assayed by 'ratio-spectra' 2nd derivative and 'zero-crossing' 3rd derivative spectrophotometry. Both procedures did not require any separation step and/or solving of equations. In the first method, calibration plots are linear up to 40mug/ml of ceftriaxone at 225, 241.5, 255.5, 255.5-241.5 and 225-241.5 nm (peak-to-peak), with r ranging from 0.9999 to 1.0000, and up to 30mug/ml of streptomycin at 206 nm, r 0.9998. Detection limits, at P = 0.05 level of significance: ceftriaxone, from 0.24 to 0.47 mug/ml (at the various wavelengths), streptomycin, 0.42 mug/ml. By the second method, lines of regression are linear up to 40 mug/ml of ceftriaxone, at 227.8 and 241.7 nm (r, 0.9999 and 1.0000) and up to 35 mug/ml of streptomycin (r, 0.9999). Detection limits were calculated to be 0.35 and 0.15 mug/ml for ceftriaxone and 0.27 mug/ml for streptomycin. Both methods were successfully applied to laboratory mixtures and to mixtures of commercial injections for these drugs.