This spectroscopic study presents the kinetics and degradation pathways of oxidation of amoxicillin (AMOX) by chloramines-T (CAT) in acidic medium at a constant ionic strength of 0.105 mol dm-3 at 298 K. Reaction between AMOX and CAT in acidic medium exhibits 1:1 stoichiometry (AMOX:CAT). The reaction is of a first-order in both [CAT] and [AMOX]. The order with respect to acid concentration was fractional. The effects of added products, ionic strength and dielectric constant have been studied. The main oxidation product of AMOX was identified by IR, ¹H NMR and mass spectra. The reaction constants involved in the different steps of the mechanisms were calculated. Activation parameters with respect to slow step of the mechanisms were computed and discussed.

A new spectrophotometric method is proposed for the assay of ranitidine hydrochloride (RNH) in bulk drug and in its dosage forms using ceric ammonium sulphate (CAS) and two dyes, malachite (MAG) green and crystal violet (CV) as reagents. The method involves the addition of a known excess of ceric ammonium sulphate to ranitidine hydrochloride in acid medium, followed by the determination of unreacted CAS by reacting with a fixed amount of malachite green or crystal violet and measuring the absorbance at 615 or 582 nm respectively against the reagent blank. The Beer's law is obeyed in the concentration range of 0.4-8.0 µg/ ml of ranitidine hydrochloride (RNH) for RNH-MAG system and 0.2-1.6µg/ml of ranitidine hydrochloride for RNH-CV system. The molar Absorptivity, Sandell's sensitivity for each system were calculated. The method has been successfully applied to the determination of ranitidine hydrochloride in pure and dosage forms.