An Automated Colorimetric Method for the Determination of Meprobamate and Other N-Unsubstituted Carbamates in Pharmaceutical Products

An automated colorimetric procedure, based on the adaptation of the cobalt complex method for N-unsubstituted carbamates, has been developed for the analysis of meprobamate and other structurally related compounds in pharmaceutical products.The technique is capable of analyzing 15 samples per hour with a relative standard deviation of 0.9% at the 400-mg.meprobamate level.Data collected on commercial formulations of a number of meprobamate combination products in addition to results on several trade packages containing structurally related therapeutic components describe the wide applicability of the method.Specificity of the procedure with respect to the analysis of intact meprobamate in the presence of its photochemical, hydrolytic, and thermal degradation products was demonstrated by comparison to quantitative thinlayer chromatography values.