Throughout this procedure, avoid exposing Dacarbazine and its solutions to light.
Standard preparations
Transfer about 30 mg of
USP Dacarbazine RS, accurately weighed, to a 50-mL volumetric flask, add 0.1 N hydrochloric acid to volume, and mix (
Standard stock solution). Dilute a portion of
Standard stock solution quantitatively and stepwise with 0.1 N hydrochloric acid to obtain an
Acidic standard preparation having a known concentration of about 6 µg per mL. Dilute a portion of
Standard stock solution quantitatively and stepwise with pH 7.0 phosphate buffer (see
Buffer Solutions in the section
Reagents, Indicators, and Solutions) to obtain a
Neutral standard preparation having a known concentration of about 6 µg per mL.
Procedure
Concomitantly determine the absorbances of the
Acidic standard preparation and the
Acidic assay preparation in 1-cm cells at the wavelength of maximum absorbance at about 323 nm, with a suitable spectrophotometer, using 0.1 N hydrochloric acid as the blank. Concomitantly determine the absorbances of the
Neutral standard preparation and the
Neutral assay preparation in 1-cm cells at the wavelength of maximum absorbance at about 329 nm, using pH 7.0 phosphate buffer (see
Buffer Solutions in the section
Reagents, Indicators, and Solutions) as the blank. Calculate the quantity, in mg, of C
6H
10N
6O in the portion of Dacarbazine taken by the formula:
5C[(A323 + A329)U / (A323 + A329)S],
in which
C is the concentration, in µg per mL, of
USP Dacarbazine RS in the
Standard preparations, and the parenthetic expressions are the sums of the absorbances of the
Assay preparations (
U) and the
Standard preparations (
S), respectively, measured at the wavelengths indicated by the subscripts.