Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis 45 (2007) 1–19 Review Analysis of cephalosporin antibiotics Salwa R. El-Shaboury, Gamal A. Saleh ∗ , Fardous A. Mohamed, Azza H. Rageh Department of Pharmaceutical Analytical Chemistry, Facutly of Pharmacy, Assiut Univeristy, 71526 Assiut, Egypt Received 13 March 2007; received in revised form 6 May 2007; accepted 5 June 2007 Available online 9 June 2007 Abstract A comprehensive review with 276 references for the analysis of members of an important class of drugs, cephalosporin antibiotics, is presented. The review covers most of the methods described for the analysis of these drugs in pure forms, in different pharmaceutical dosage forms and in biological fluids. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Cephalosporins; Analytical methods; Pharmaceutical analysis; Biological analysis Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 2. Chemistry ................................................................................................................ 2 3. Classification ............................................................................................................. 2 4. Physico-chemical and pharmacokinetic properties ............................................................................ 2 5. Official methods of analysis ................................................................................................ 2 6. Reported methods of analysis ............................................................................................... 2 6.1. Analysis in bulk drug and dosage forms ............................................................................... 2 6.1.1. Spectroscopic methods ...................................................................................... 2 6.1.2. Chromatographic methods ................................................................................... 9 6.1.3. Electrochemical methods ................................................................................... 11 6.2. Analysis in biological fluids ......................................................................................... 12 6.2.1. Chromatographic methods .................................................................................. 12 6.2.2. Electrochemical methods ................................................................................... 12 References .............................................................................................................. 16 1. Introduction The discovery of cephalosporins was not a matter of luck. The requirements during World War II stimulated the search for antibiotics produced by micro-organisms. Despite the rela- tively extended knowledge on these drugs, their qualitative and quantitative analysis still gives rise to many problems. These difficulties are due to the chemical instability of the common - lactam nucleus and the minor differences in chemical structures ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +2 88 2 321014 (R)/2 88 2 411302 (O); fax: +2 88 2 332776. E-mail address: gasaleh05@yahoo.com (G.A. Saleh). between the analogues. Monographs in the ‘Analytical Profiles of Drug Substances’, series, were published for cefalotin sodium [1], cefazolin [2], cefalexin [3], cefradine [4], cefaclor [5], cefamandole naftate [6], cefotaxime [7], cefoxitin sodium [8], ceftazidime [9], cefuroxime sodium [10], cefiixime [11] and cef- triaxone sodium [12]. In the last few years, there was no review published covering all different analytical methods used for the determination of cephalosporin antibiotics. The high importance of this class of drugs prompted us to review the most important recent methods for their analysis in pure forms, in different phar- maceutical dosage forms and in biological fluids. Because of the large number of references that appeared as individual methods or as part of clinical and pharmacological studies, it is possible 0731-7085/$ – see front matter © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jpba.2007.06.002