Journal of Al-Nahrain University

Vol.16 (1), March, 2013, pp.1-10

Science

Comparative Analytical Study for Determination of Acetylsalicylic Acid in

Bulk and in Pharmaceutical Formulations
Sahar Samir Mohammed
Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Al-Nahrain University, Baghdad-Iraq.
Abstract
A new sensitive colorimetric method for determination of aspirin tablet in aqueous solution. The
method is depending on the formation of a yellow colored azo dye by diazotization of 2, 4dichloroaniline followed by azo-coupling reaction between the resulting product and acetylsalicylic
acid. The lambda max of azo dye at 527nm. Beer's low was found to be obeyed in the concentration
range of 2-25g/mL with rang of molar absorptivity between (2935) Lmol-1cm-1.Aspirin tablet from
different sources industrial companies (SDI, NDI) using high performance liquid chromatography
(HPLC) with reversed-phase (ODS-C18) column at low wave length of Uv-visible detection
(280nm).the acetylsalicylic acid was eluted for 5 minute at flow rate 2ml/min. The retention time of
acetylsalicylic acid was observed at 4.11 minutes. The concentration of the different above
companies were gave good relationship between area under the peak (AUP) and acetylsalicylic acid
content (p1> 0.001). The comparing of the all values of aspirin tablets in (SDI, NDI) between the
above methods were evaluated a good accuracy while the new colorimetric spectrophotometric
method for the determination of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) in pharmaceutical formulations
developed procedure was successfully applied to the rapid determination of acetylsalicylic acid in
commercial pharmaceutical preparations. The unique features of this procedure are that
determination can be carried out at room temperature and analysis time is short. The newly
developed method is simple, inexpensive and efficient for use in the analysis of a large number of
samples.
Keywords: Acetylsalicylic acid,2,4-dichloroaniline azo coupling reaction, pharmaceutical analysis.
assay sensitive colorimetric method of ASA in
tablets [14].
Several analytical methods were developed
to prepared aspirin alone or with other drugs
[15, 16] including liquid chromatography, UV
derivative spectrophotometric method [17].
In this research a new simple and sensitive
colorimetric method developed in aqueous
solution [18, 19]. Based on the formation of
yellow colored azo dye by diazotization of 2,
4-dichloroaniline followed the resulting
produced and alkali aspirin solution [20]. The
proposed method has the advantage of being
rapid and simple.

Introduction
Aspirin is a [2-(acetyloxy) benzoic acid]
[1]. Sympathicomimetic drug, which was
first introduced in medicine by dresser in 1899
[2]. It is prepared by treating acetylsalicylic
with acetic anhydride [3,4]. A [2-(acetyloxy)
benzoic acid] with formula structural explain
below is widely used as anti-inflammatory in
the treatment of respiratory diseases in humans
[5, 6].

Experimental
Instruments and Equipment:
1.HPLC,
knauer
advanced
scientific
instrument pump 1000 (manager 5000)
including the parts of detector PDA
(photo Diod array), auto sampler3900
computerized/Chroma gate, column L1C18
(ODS) octadecyl silane chemically bound to
porous silica or ceramic micro particles,
3-10m in Diameter (250 x 4.6mm).
Sonycate/karlkotl vibrater. PH meter

Structure formula of acetylsalicylic acid.

Various analytical method have been
reported for determination of tablets ASA [7];
using analysis technique [8]. Including
chromatographic method HPLC and GC/MS
[9, 10], the potentiometers, flow-injection
spectrophotometric [11], diazotization and
coupling [12, 13], in current study describes
1

Sahar Samir Mohammed

microprocessor pH meter. (HANNA

No.210). BUK scientific, model 500,
infrared spectrophotometer, balance mettle
Toledo/AB20y, Switzerland. UV-visible
spectrophotometer/Cary 100 cone (varian).
2.Double-beam UV-Visible spectrophotometer model (UV-1650 PC) SHIMADZU
(Japan), interfaced with computer via a
SHIMADZU UV probe data system
program (Version1.10), using 1.00 cm
quartz cell was used for measuring
the absorption single, Ultra sonic
devise (ultrasonicator) for dissolving
samples, (SONOREX), (W.Germany),
Ultra-pure water manufacturing device,
(TORAYPURE), model uv-08 (Japan).
3. The IR spectra were measured as (KBr disc)
were recorded with Shimadzu-FTIR 8300
spectrophotometer.

Procedure
General Procedure:
1. Assay of acetylsalicylic acid using 2, 4dichloroaniline by diazotization:
The 2 ml of acetylsalicylic acid standard
solution 100 g/mL and 0.75 ml of 1M
Sodium Hydroxide solutions were added to
5 ml of 2, 4-dichloroaniline and 0.5 ml of 1%
sodium nitrate and 0.5 ml of 1M HCl were
mixed and completed with distilled water to
the mark in 10ml volumetric flask and shacked
for 3 minutes, shaking and cooling ice bath for
3 minute, after 5 minutes the yellow color is
completely developed and the absorbance
measurement was carried out at a wavelength
at 527nm, against a blank solution prepared in
the same method but without a acetylsalicylic
acid.
2. Assay of acetylsalicylic acid using
UV-Visible spectrophotometry:
Ten tablets were weighed and weighed and
finely powdered. A weighed amount of the
powder containing 100 mg of acetylsalicylic
acid equivalent to one tablet was dissolved in
10 ml absolute ethanol and then diluted with
distilled in 50 ml of volumetric flasks and
diluted up to the mark to obtain 100 g/ml.
Oral solution 2 ml was taken from
container
containing
400
g/ml
of
acetylsalicylic acid was transferred in to 100ml
volumetric flasks and diluted up to the mark
with distilled water. Working standard was
prepared by suitable dilution and the
recommended procedure was used for
acetylsalicylic acid its determination.

Chemicals and Reagents:

Pure
acetylsalicylic
acid
C9H8O4
F.W.180.2 standard material was obtained
from state company of Drug industries and
medical Appliances (Samara-Iraq-SDI and
Nainwa-Iraq-NDI); all commercial drugs
tablets contain 100 mg of acetylsalicylic acid.
Preparation of stock and working standard
solution
a. A standard solution of 100g ml-1 aspirin
was freshly prepared by dissolving 0.01 gm
of acetylsalicylic acid in 10ml absolute
ethanol and then diluted with distilled
water in 10ml; A 2, 4-dichloroaniline was
obtained from (Merck) a standard solution
of 100mg ml-1 was prepared by dissolving
0.01gm of 2, 4-dichloroaniline in 10ml
absolute ethanol and then diluted with
distilled water to 100ml.A sodium nitrite
(99.8% purity) form (BDH) and stander
solution was prepared. 4-sodium hydroxide
of (98% purity) from (RDL), solution of 1M
was prepared by dissolving 4 gm in 100 ml
distilled water.
b.Acetonitrile
of
HPLC
grade
PAI
PANREAC, Lot 2621072914, BarcelonaEspna; Glacial acetic acid BDH, Batch
No.28118, England; Formic acid and
Sodium heptane sulfunate and other
materials are used of HPLC analytical grade
were obtained from the center for drug
research and quality control.

3. Assay of acetylsalicylic acid by HPLC

method:
The standard calibration curve was
prepared after the acetylsalicylic acid was
determined in the each tablet from different
pharmaceutical companies.
The preparation of the calibration curve
was used from the external standard
acetylsalicylic acid usp reference standard and
the stock solution was prepared from different
dilution (0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6g/ml)
then injected in to HPLC to obtain the
(AUP) of each concentration. While the
chromatographic procedure was carried out by
using, stainless steel column with a dimension
of (250X4.6mm) that contain packing L1C18.
2

Journal of Al-Nahrain University

Vol.16 (1), March, 2013, pp.1-10

(ODS); diluted mixture was prepared of

acetonitrile of acetonitrile and formic acid
(99: l) was prepared. With the Mobile phase:
2 gram of sodium heptanesulfonate in a
mixture of 850 ml of water and 150 ml of
acetonitrile was dissolved, and adjust with
glacial acetic acid to pH 3.4. Operate in mode
LPG: Flow rate 2ml/min.Run time 5min.
Injection volume 20l. Detector wave length
280 nm (UV-Visible detector).

Science

Results and Discussions

1. Spectrophotometry method
The result of this investigation indicated
that the reaction between acetylsalicylic acid
with 2, 4-dichloroaniline in the presence of
sodium nitrite and hydrochloric acid yield
highly soluble colored condensation products
which can be utilized as a suitable assay
procedures for acetylsalicylic acid; these color
products have maximum absorption at 527 nm
while the blank at these wave length show zero
absorbance a Fig.(1). The influence of various
reaction variables on the color development
was tested to establish the most favorable
conditions.

Fig. (1) (A) Absorption spectrum of the azo dye formed, acetylsalicylic acid (20mg/ml)
and 2, 4-dichloroaniline (b) Absorption spectrum of the 2, 4-dichloroaniline
(c) Absorption spectrum of acetylsalicylic acid.
The linear calibration graph
acetylsalicylic acid is obtained in Fig.(2).

for

Fig. (2) The calibration curve of acetylsalicylic acid by UV spectrophotometry.

Sahar Samir Mohammed

Which shows that the beer's low was

obeyed over the concentration rang of
2-25 g/ml with correlation coefficient and the
conditional absorptivity of the yellow product
formed was found (2935) Lmol-1cm-1. The
results was reported in Table (1).

Table (1)
Summery of linearity studies of ASA.
Parameters
Linearity
range(g/ml)
Regression equation
Slop
intercept
Correlation
coefficient(r)
Linearity(%r2)
Molar absorptivity
(L mol-1cm-1)

Value
2-25
Y=0.09840+0.18420
0.09840
0.18420
0.9999
99.98
2935

The precision and accuracy of aspirin were

carried out through analysis of (n=3) of
different companies showed in Table (2).
Table (2)
Summary of linearity studies of ASA in U.V spectrophotometry method.
Amount Amount
Compounds (g/ml) (g/ml) RSD% Recovery% Ere.%
C.L.
added
Found
NDI

0.5

0.465

0.069

93.0

-7

0.4754.5x10-2

SDI

0.5

0.486

0.074

97.2

-2.8

0.4866.7x10-2

The addition of reagents:

The optimum result was obtained by the
addition of reagent and other chemicals to
formation the azo dye are given by the
following sequence volumes were taken 5ml
of 100g ml-1 2, 4-dichloroaniline, 0.5 ml of
1M HCl, 0.5ml of 1% sodium nitrate 2ml of
100g ml-1 of acetylsalicylic acid and 0.75ml
of sodium hydroxide. That the best of the
order of addition of reagent and other
chemicals which gave azo dye had high
intensity and high absorbance at the
wavelength 527 nm.
Composition of the formula structure:
Acetylsalicylic acid form colored product
after coupling with an electrophilic of 2, 4dichloroaniline diazotation ion in the presence
of alkaline medium the Mechanism of the
Reaction following
4

Journal of Al-Nahrain University

Vol.16 (1), March, 2013, pp.1-10

The composition of the formula structure

of azo dye was studied by the mole ratio
method [19]. A break of 1:1 suggested the

Science

formation of acetylsalicylic acid with 2, 4dichloroaniline Fig.(3).

Fig. (3) Mole ratioof the azo dye of acetylsalicylic acid with 2, 4-dichloroaniline.
The apparent stability constants were
calculated by comparing the absorbance of
solution containing a twice amount of aspirin
with 2, 4-dichloroaniline that of a solution
containing five-fold excess of reagent. The
average conditional stability constant of the
dye in water, under the described experimental
conditions is 0.38x104. The color intensity

reached maximum after formation of azo dye

of acetylsalicylic acid. The color obtained was
stable for at least 24 hours then used (FTIR)
for the identification of the complex formed
that the measurements obtained show in
Fig. (4)

Sahar Samir Mohammed

Fig. (4) The (FTIR) absorption (cm-1) of the complex formed.

The reaction is followed by disappearance
of (NH2) absorption band at (3100-3400) cm-1
with appearance of (N=N) absorption band at
(1450-1460) cm-1.

The highly significant linear correlation of

the area under the peak (Aup) on the
concentration indicated by the high value
of r2 and r, which are close to the highest
value of the perfect correlation; this
ensures the accuracy of the work and the
qualification of the HPLC device.The
following Chromatogram of 0.5 g/ml of
standard solution of acetylsalicylic acid is
shown below in Fig. (6).

2. HPLC method:
The different solutions were prepared of
acetylsalicylic acid these dilutions injected in
to HPLC system was obtained using area
under the peak (Aup) Fig. (5) Showing the
results of the calibration curve follows the
straight-line equation of ASA.

Fig.(5) Calibration Curve of acetylsalicylic

acid in HPLC method.
Linear regression analysis of calibration
data gave in Table (3) with Correlation
coefficients close to unity.

Fig. (6) The chromatogram of standard

solution of acetylsalicylic acid retention time
of acetylsalicylic acid (TR) is 4.110min.

Table (3)
Summery of linearity studies of ASA.
Parameters
Value
Linearity range(g/ml)
0.1-0.8
Regression equation
Y=736690x
Slop
736690
Intercept
0
Correlation
0.9999
coefficient(r)
Linearity(%r2)
99.98

The precision and accuracy were carried

out through analysis of (n=3) of different
companies showed in Table (4).

Journal of Al-Nahrain University

Vol.16 (1), March, 2013, pp.1-10

Science

Table (4)
Summary of linearity studies of ASA in HPLC method.
Compounds

Amount
(g/ml)
added

Amount
(g/ml)
Found

RSD
%

Recovery
%

Ere.%

Aup

C.L.

NDI

0.5

0.475

0.072

95

-5

349927

0.4754.5x10-2

SDI

0.5

0.490

0.076

98

-2

360978

0.4904.5x10-2

Effect of Organic solvent

The effect of organic solvent such us
methanol, ethanol, ether and distill water were
studied by using in the dilution and measuring
the absorbance were found 0.39, 0.316, 0402,
0.476 respectively. So we used distill water
because it had best absorbance for it is
abundance.

Interference Studies
The effect of interference by common
organic compound was determined by
measuring the absorbance of a dye solution
containing 1 ml of 4X10-4 M of glucose and
various amount of other species such as
p-phenylen diamine, O-aminophenol,4-chloro
nito aniline, resosenol, paracetamol, and
starch. The results showed that 4-chloro nitro
aniline major of common compound do
interfere the results are given in Table (5).

Table (5)
Effect varies interference of organic compound on the absorption.

Interference

Without
addition

Glucose

Absorbance

0.466

0123

oresosenol
aminophenol

0.137

0.198

Analytical application
Proposed method have been used of
two type of drugs containing acetylsalicylic
acid (tablet and oral) and they gave good
accuracy and precision, the proposed method
(UV-vis, HPLC) was compared with British
pharmacopeias standard method, since F-test,
T-test showed that three were no significant
differences between the proposed method and
official method [18]. The results obtained were
tabulated in Table (6).

4chloro
pparacetamol starch nitro
phenylen
aniline diamine
0.168

0.195

0.217

0.135

Sahar Samir Mohammed

Table (6)
Determination of acetylsalicylic acid in pharmaceutical preparations by the proposed method and
comparison with the British pharmacopeia method.
%E
Relative
Procedure
Pharmaceutical
Recovery%
Relative
Standard
Applied
Formulation*
Error
Deviation*%
Tablets**
Proposed
acetylsalicylic
99.13
0.86
2.75
method
acid
UV-Vis
Oral
0.45
3.25
99.55
acetylsalicylic

British
pharmacopeia
method[18]
UV-Vis

Proposed
method
HPLC

British
pharmacopeia
method[18]
HPLC

Tablets**
Acetylsalicylic
acid
Oral
acetylsalicylic
Tablets**
acetylsalicylic
acid
Oral*
acetylsalicylic
Tablets*
Acetylsalicylic
Acid
Oral**
acetylsalicylic

*mean of three determination marketed by SDI

100

100

99.87

0.125

4.3

100.2

0.2

2.3

100

101.2

1.2

2.55

** mean of three determination marketed by NDI.

Comparative Method
The procedures for comparative methods
(HPLC and colorimetric method) have been
described in the British Pharmacopoeia. That
Acetylsalicylic acid with colorimetric method
was detected a newly developed method is
simple, inexpensive and efficient for use in the
analysis of a large number of samples.

and requires less sample handling than

methods currently described in the literature.
Statistical comparison of the results with the
diazotization method showed good agreement
and indicates no significant difference in
accuracy and precision. So, the precision of
the proposed method of analysis was found to
be good (for drug samples RSD < 5%).

Conclusion
Despite the great number of methods
described in the literature for the analysis of
ASA, the proposed diazotization by azocoupling spectrophotometric method for the
determination of acetylsalicylic acid in
pharmaceutical samples reported in this paper
is simple, rapid, inexpensive, and thus is very
appropriate for routine quality control analysis
of active drug in the laboratories of hospitals,
pharmaceutical industries and research
institutions. The procedure is easier to execute

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Journal of Al-Nahrain University

Vol.16 (1), March, 2013, pp.1-10

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Science

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Sahar Samir Mohammed

. AZO

) )NDI,SDI ) (HPLC
) (ODS-C18

280nm
5 2 min/ml
4.11 nm

) (AUP .

10