Abstract
A new simple, accurate and reasonably sensitive spectrophotometric method is described for the determination of reserpine based on the oxidation with sodium metaperiodate in the presence of acetic acid and coupling with 3-methyl-2-benzo thiazolinone hydazone hydrochloride (MBTH) to form highly blue coloured product showing maximum absorbance at 630 nm. Beer's law is obeyed in the range 0.2–1.6 µg ml−1. The relative standard deviation was found to be less than 1%. The proposed method can be applied for the estimation of reserpine in tablets with no evidence of interference from excipients.