Enhanced chemiluminescence determination of paracetamol

Due to severe consequences of potential overdoses from paracetamol (PCM) on the human body, the measurement of PCM in the pharmaceutical and the biological samples is essential. Therefore, presenting a simple and rapid technique with high detection limit and wide linear range plays a crucial role in detecting the PCM’s overdose leading to drug poisoning. This contribution illustrates a novel chemiluminescence (CL) system for the detection of PCM based on the chemiluminescent reaction between PCM and KMnO4. An enhanced CL was observed by the addition of rhodamine.6G within an SDS surfactant. The system demonstrates good analytical performance over the linear range 0.12 µM to 0.185 mM with a detection limit of 7.8 × 10-8 M. In addition, good precision was observed with a RSD of 0.81 %. This system was successfully applied to the detection of PCM in pharmaceutical tablets and drop as well as from human urine samples with average % recoveries ranging from 95.5 to 105.7 %. Possible interferences from major excipients in pharmaceuticals and other related compounds as well as biological interferences were also studied. This highlights the feasibility of the proposed system for real sample analysis in both chemical and biological matrices.