UV-spectrophotometric determination of beclomethasone dipropionate and phenylethyl alcohol in a nasal spray by inverse least-squares regression

Inverse least-squares (ILS) regression was used for the simultaneous UV spectrophotometric determination of the active principle (beclomethasone dipropionate) and a solvent (phenylethyl alcohol) in a pharmaceutical preparation commercially available in nasal spray form. A factorial design was used to establish the calibration equations, which enables the construction of calibration models using a minimum number of samples. The operating wavelengths were chosen by first choosing that coinciding with the absorption maximum for the analyte to be determined and then adding terms, one at a time, following the stepwise-forward procedure until no significantly improved S.E. is obtained. Single calibration equations were found for both constituents that provide satisfactory results in absorbance mode. The ILS procedure was applied to five industrial preparations with highly satisfactory results. In all, coefficients of variation values were less than 2%.