A rapid method by chemiluminescence is described for the determination of naltrexone. The method is based on the chemiluminescence reaction with potassium permanganate in sulfuric acid medium. The optimum conditions for the chemiluminescence emission were investigated. With the integrated chemiluminescence intensity for 10 s after KMnO4 injection as a quantitative parameter, naltrexone can be determined over the concentration range 50–1000 ng ml–1 with a detection limit of 2.5 ng ml–1 and with a RSD (n = 10) of 0.9% and 0.5% at levels of 1000 and 100 ng ml–1, respectively. The method was applied to the determination of naltrexone in pharmaceutical preparations.
