A simple, fast, sensitive and accurate spectrophotometric method has been developed for the quantitative determination of cephalexin monohydrate in dosage form and in commercial formulations. The method involves the addition of CeIV to cephalexin in acidic medium, followed by the determination of residual CeIV by reacting with a fixed amount of methyl orange, and the absorbance was measured at 510 nm. Beer's law was obeyed in the concentration range of 0.6-20 µg mL-1 with correlation coefficient of 0.992. The molar absorptivity was calculated and was found to be 9.8 × 104 L mol-1 cm-1. Different variables affecting the reaction conditions such as concentration and volume of CeIV, type and concentration of acids used, reaction time and temperature were carefully studied and optimized. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were calculated and found to be 0.221 and 0.736 µg mL-1, respectively. The proposed method was found to have good reproducibility with a relative standard deviation of 4.4% (n = 9). The interference effects of common excipients found in pharmaceutical preparations were studied. The developed method was validated statistically by performing recoveries studies and successfully applied for the determination of cephalexin in bulk powder and pharmaceutical preparations. Percent recoveries were calculated and found to range from 90.6 to 102.9% for bulk powder and from 98.7 to 104.8% for pharmaceutical preparations.

The present study was planned to evaluate the anticoccidial activity of the different concentrations of the HCl against Eimeria tenella infection in broiler chickens in comparison with the amprolium anticoccidial. For this purpose, a total of 198 chicks were placed 11 per pen with three pens per treatment. The different concentrations of HCl (1000ppm, 2000ppm and 3000ppm) and amproilum (at the dose rate of 125ppm) were given to the experimental groups in drinking water from 10 to 19th days of age. One group was kept as infected non medicated control and one as non infected non medicated control. At the 12th day of age, all the groups were inoculated orally with 75,000 sporulated oocysts except non infected non medicated control. Anticoccidial activity was evaluated on the basis of performance (weight gain, feed conversion ratio) and pathogenic (oocyst score, lesion score and mortality %age) parameters. Among HCl medicated groups, the maximum anticoccidial effect was seen in the group medicated with 1000ppm HCl followed by 2000ppm and 3000ppm HCl medicated groups. Amprolium and 1000ppm HCl were almost equivalent in suppressing the negative performance and pathogenic effects associated with coccidiosis (Eimeria tenella) challenge. In summary, the lower doses of HCl have the potential to be used as alternative to chemotherapeutic drugs for Eimeria tenella control. It is therefore suggested that further studies should be carried out to determine the possible minimum safe levels of HCl with least toxic effects to be used as anticoccidial.

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the anticoccidial effect of the different concentrations of the acetic acid in the broiler chickens in comparison with the amprolium anticoccidial. A total of 198 chicks were placed 11 per pen with three pens per treatment. The different concentrations (1%, 2% and 3%) of acetic acid and amproilum (at the dose rate of 125ppm) were given to the experimental groups in drinking water from 10-19th days of age. One group was kept as infected non medicated control and one as non infected non medicated control. All the groups were inoculated orally with 75,000 sporulated oocysts at the 12th day of age except non infected non medicated control. Anticoccidial effect was evaluated on the basis of performance (weight gain, feed conversion ratio) and pathogenic (oocyst score, lesion score and mortality %age) parameters. Among acetic acid medicated groups, the maximum anticoccidial effect was seen in the group medicated with 3% acetic acid followed by 2% and 1% acetic acid medicated groups. Amprolium and 3% acetic acid were almost equivalent in suppressing the negative performance and pathogenic effects associated with coccidiosis (Eimeria tenella) challenge. In summary, acetic acid has the potential to be used as alternative to chemotherapeutic drugs for Eimeria tenella control. Concentration-dependent anticoccidial effect of acetic acid suggests that further studies should be carried out to determine the possible maximum safe levels of acetic acid with least toxic effects to be used as anticoccidial.