Determination of imidazole antimycotics in creams by supercritical fluid extraction and derivative UV spectroscopy.

A supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) method was developed for the isolation of imidazole antimycotic drugs (miconazole, econazole, clotrimazole and bifonazole) from cream preparations. The SFE process involved static (1 min) and dynamic (4 min) extraction steps using pure and 10% methanol modified carbon dioxide. The SFE step was then followed by derivative UV spectrophotometric analysis. The method proved to be suitable for quality control assays of the examined antimycotics in commercial cream formulations.