Turbidimetric Determination of Mebeverine Hydrochloride in Pharmaceutical Formulations Using Two Consecutive Detection Zones under Continuous Flow Conditions

A simple, low cost and rapid flow injection turbidimetric method was developed and validated for mebeverine hydrochloride (MBH) determination in pharmaceutical preparations. The developed method is based on forming of a white, turbid ion-pair product as a result of a reaction between the MBH and sodium persulfate in a closed flow injection system where the sodium persulfate is used as precipitation reagent. The turbidity of the formed complex was measured at the detection angle of 180° (attenuated detection) using NAG dual&Solo (0-180°) detector which contained dual detections zones (i.e., measuring cells 1 & 2). The increase in the turbidity of the complex was directly proportional to the increase of the MBH concentration in the range of 2.0-10 µmol/L with a limit of detection 0.35 µmol/L, 0.9981 (R2), and 2.0-12 µmol/L with a limit of detection 0.4 µmol/L and 0.9973 (R2) for measuring cells 1 and 2, respectively. The intra-day precision for three serial estimations of 5.0 and 9.0 µmol/L of MBH exhibited an RSD % of 0.23 % and 0.77 % and 0.68 % and 0.13 %, for cell 1 & 2, respectively. While the inter-day precision for three serials of three days exhibited an RSD % of 0.03 % and 0.77 % and 0.11 % and 0.07 %, for measuring cells 1 & 2, respectively. The accuracy of the developed method has expressed as an error % (E%) and a Rec % (recovery percentage), which was between 100.35 to 101.15 and 99.70 to 101.56 for cell 1 and cell 2, respectively. The present flow injection method has shown no interference effect from the common excipients and permits quantitively determination of 60 samples per hour. The developed method was successfully applied for the quantitative determination of MBH in different tablets containing 135 mg with excellent recovery percentage.

Recent advances in the use of walnut (Juglans regia L.) shell as a valuable plant-based bio-sorbent for the removal of hazardous materials

The effective use of agricultural by-products is definitely a major challenge in waste management. In the walnut fruit processing industry, large amounts of shells are produced as agricultural by-products and discarded or burned produced as fuel. Walnut (Juglans regia L.) is a valuable tree nut in the Juglandaceae family. The fruit is composed of four main parts: the kernel, the skin, the shell, and the husk. The importance of walnuts is mostly related to theirs valuable kernels. However, their shells are currently experiencing as much interest as their kernels due to the beneficial effects of the shells. In the past several years, walnut shell (WS) has been widely explored as a naturally inert plant-based biosorbent. In this review, we first highlight recent scientific literature regarding the development of adsorbents from WS in the form of carbon-based materials including unmodified/modified WS, and activated carbons (ACs). Next, we discuss the potential applications of WS-derived by-products as natural yet effective adsorbents for the removal of various hazardous materials including heavy metals (HMs), synthetic industrial dyes, and harmful chemicals.