Spectrophotometric Investigations of Some Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs): A Brief Review

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), one of the most commonly used classes of antipyretic, anti-inflammatory, antiplatelet, and analgesic agents, are a group of synthetic drugs that act as cyclooxygenase (COX) enzyme inhibitors, so inhibit the formation of PGs which are important mediators in pain & inflammation. They are classified into groups based on their chemical structure and selectivity: acetylated salicylates (aspirin), non-acetylated salicylates, propionic acids (naproxen, ibuprofen, acetic acids (diclofenac, indomethacin), enolic acids (meloxicam, piroxicam) anthranilic acids the polyketide class of natural products. Different analytical techniques have been reported for the determination of NSAIDs such as chromatographic methods, flow injection methods, spectrofluorometric methods, spectrophotometric methods, and capillary electrophoresis methods. Among these methods, spectrophotometric methods are sensitive and cost-effective for the analysis of various NSAIDs in pharmaceutical formulations as well as biological samples. This article reviews different spectrophotometric methods effective for the determination of some NSAIDs like aspirin, ibuprofen, diclofenac, and indomethacin.