Simple and economical UV spectrophotometric methods by area under curve [AUC] and first order derivative have been developed for the estimation of alprazolam in bulk and its tablet formulation. The standard and sample solutions of alprazolam were prepared in 0.1N hydrochloric acid. Alprazolam was estimated between 255-270 nm for area under curve (AUC) method the zero order spectrum and 251 nm for the first order derivative method. Beer’s law was obeyed in the concentration range of 1 to 12 μg / ml with coefficient of correlation value 0.9991 for area under curve method while 1 to 14 μg / ml for first order derivative method with coefficient of correlation value as 0.9997 respectively. A validation of above methods was carried out as per ICH guidelines. The precision expressed as relative standard deviation were of 0.0233 % and 0.724381 % for the above two methods respectively. The proposed methods were easily applied for the estimation of alprazolam in pharmaceutical dosages. Results of the analysis were were found to be satisfactory statistically. The proposed methods are simple, low-cost and require relatively inexpensive instruments.
