A sensitive spectrophotometric method was developed for the estimation of cefdinir (CFD), a cephalosporin species. This study involves two methods, and the first method includes the preparing of azo dye by the reaction of CFD diazonium salt with 4-Tert-Butylphenol (4-TBP) and 2-Naphthol (2-NPT) in alkaline medium, which shows colored dyes measured at λmax 490 and 535 nm, respectively. Beer's law was obeyed along the concentration range of (3-100) μg.ml-1. The limits of detection were 0.246, 0.447 μg.ml-1 and molar absorptivities were 0.6129×104, 0.3361×104 L.mol-1cm-1 for (CFD-4-TBP) and (CFD-2-NPT), respectively. The second method includes preconcentration for cefdinir dyes by using cloud point extraction in the presence of Triton X-114 (10% v/v) and recording measurements using the UV-Visible technique. Cloud point extraction enables the drug to be precisely estimated under the optimal experimental conditions. The concentrations were ranged between (0.1-6.0) and (0.2-6.0) μg.ml-1. The limits of detection were 0.032, 0.054 μg.ml-1 and molar absorptivities were 0.4733×105, 0.2788×105 L.mol-1cm-1, respectively. Enrichment factors were 24.61, 24.58, and distribution coefficients were 1526, 1393 for (CFD-4-TBP), (CFD-2-NPT), respectively. The proposed methods have been applied for the determination of CFD in commercial formulation with no interference. The results appear to be no significant difference between the two methods.
