Abstract
Purpose: Fluoxetine (FLX) is
the most prescribed antidepressant drug worldwide. In this work, a new dispersive liquid–liquid
microextraction (DLLME) method combined with spectrofluorimetry has been
developed for the extraction and determination of FLX in pharmaceutical
formulations and human urine. Methods: For FLX
determination, the pH of a 10 mL of sample solution containing FLX, was
adjusted to 11.0. Then, 800 µL of ethanol containing 100 µL of chloroform was
injected rapidly into the sample solution. A cloudy solution was formed and FLX
extracted into the fine droplets of chloroform. After centrifugation, the
extraction solvent was sedimented and supernatant aqueous phase was readily
decanted. The remained organic phase was diluted with ethanol and its
fluorescence was measured at 292±3 nm after excitation at 234±3 nm. Results:
Some important parameters influencing
microextraction efficiency were investigated. Under the optimum extraction
conditions, a linear calibration curve in the range of 10 to 800 ng mL–1
with a correlation coefficient of r2 = 0.9993 was obtained. Limit of
detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were found to be 2.78 and
9.28 ng/mL, respectively. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) were less
than 4%. Average recoveries for spiked samples were 93–104%. Conclusion: The proposed method gives a very
rapid, simple, sensitive, wide dynamic range and low–cost procedure for the
determination of FLX.