Adsorptive stripping voltammetric determination of the anti-inflammatory drug celecoxib in pharmaceutical formulation and human serum

Celecoxib is a cyclooxygenase inhibitor, that has been recently and intensively prescribed as an anti-inflammatory drug in rheumatic osteoarthiritis. A robust, highly reliable and reproducible square-wave (SW) adsorptive cathodic stripping voltammetric procedure was developed for the determination of celecoxib in pharmaceutical formulation and human serum. The analytical procedure was based on the reduction of the CN of the pyrazole ring of the drug molecule at the mercury electrode surface in Britton–Robinson buffer of pH 7.0. The SW adsorptive cathodic stripping voltammogram of celecoxib showed a single well-defined peak at −1.54 V (vs. Ag/AgCl/KCls) using an accumulation potential of −0.70 V, frequency of 120 Hz, scan increment of 10 mV and pulse amplitude of 25 mV. Repeatability was examined for 1×10−8 M CXB drug solution after 30 s pre-concentration and a mean recovery of 99.4±0.4% (n=5) was achieved. For 90 s preconcentration, a linear concentration range of 1×10−9–2×10−8 M CXB and a detection limit of 1.86×10−10 M were achieved. The proposed procedure was successfully applied for the determination of the drug in capsules and human serum with mean recoveries of 101.5±0.6 and 98.8±1.1%, respectively. A detection and quantitation limits of 1.0×10−9 M (0.4 ng ml−1) and 4.7×10−9 M (1.3 ng ml−1) were achieved for the determination of the drug in human serum. Moreover, the procedure was useful for study of the pharmacokinetic profile of celecoxib in a healthy volunteer after administration of a single oral dose (celebrex®, 200 mg).