UV-Visible Spectrophotometric Method Development and Validation for the Estimation of Curcumin and Tetrahydrocurcumin

Background: Curcumin shows degradation in the solution of high pH. There is a need for development of a method which can estimate the drug release precisely and accurately. The UV spectroscopy due to its simplicity and specificity is the most popular for method development for the determination of drugs. Objective: The present study was aimed to develop the UV-Visible spectrophotometric method for the assessment of curcumin and tetrahydrocurcumin (THC) using a stable solvent system. Method: The solubility of curcumin and tetrahydrocurcumin was determined at various physiological pH levels. Non-ionic surfactant, tween 80 was used with selected media to avoid the degradation of drugs. The selected solvent system was further validated according to guidelines of the international conference on harmonization (ICH) and the analytical parameters like linearity, veracity, sensitivity and accuracy were studied. Results: The solvent systems Phosphate buffer of pH 6.8+2% tween 80 and Phosphate buffer of pH 6.8+1% tween 80 were found optimum for estimation of curcumin and THC respectively. All the validation parameters were found within the range for developed methods. Conclusion: The proposed method is very simple and can be used for routine quality control testing of curcumin and tetrahydrocurcumin.