A rapid quantitative assay of intact paracetamol tablets by reflectance near-infrared spectroscopy

Near-infrared (NIR) reflectance spectroscopy was used to determine rapidly and non-destructively the content of paracetamol in bulk batches of intact Sterwin 500 mg tablets by collecting NIR spectra in the range 1100-2500 nm and using a multiple linear regression calibration method. The developed NIR method gave results comparable to the British Pharmacopoeia 1993 UV assay procedure, the standard errors of calibration and prediction being 0.48% and 0.71% m/m, respectively. The method showed good repeatability, the standard deviation and coefficient of variation for six NIR assays on the same batch on the same day being 0.14 and 0.16% m/m, respectively, while measurements over six consecutive days gave 0.31 and 0.36% m/m, respectively. Applying the calibration to a parallel test set gave a mean bias of -0.22% and a mean accuracy of 0.45%. The developed method illustrates how the full potential of NIR can be utilised and how the ICH guidelines which recommend the validation of linearity, range, accuracy and precision for pharmaceutical registration purposes can be applied. Duplicate determinations on bulk batches could be performed in under 2 min, allowing the potential use of the method on-line for real time monitoring of a running production process.     

Quantification of paracetamol in intact tablets using near-infrared transmittance spectroscopy.

Production batch samples of paracetamol tablets and specially prepared out-of-specification batches covering the range 90-110% of the stated amount (500 mg) were analysed by the BP official UV assay and by NIR transmittance spectroscopy. NIR measurements were made on 20 intact tablets from each batch, scanned five times each (10 min measurement time per batch) over the spectral range 6000-11,520 cm-1. An average spectrum was calculated for each batch. Partial least squares (PLS) regression models were set up using a calibration set (20 batches) between the NIR response and the reference tablet paracetamol content (UV). Various pre-treatments of the spectra were examined; the smallest relative standard error of prediction (0.73%) was obtained using the first derivative of the absorbance over the full spectrum. Only two principal components were required for the PLS model to give a good relationship between the spectral information and paracetamol content. Applying this model to the validation set (15 batches) gave a mean bias of -0.08% and a mean accuracy of 0.59% with relative standard deviations of 0.75 and 0.44%, respectively. The proposed method is non-destructive and therefore lends itself to on-line/at-line production control purposes. The method is easy to use and does not require a knowledge of the mass of the tablets.     

A procedure for calibration transfer between near-infrared instruments--a worked example using a transmittance single tablet assay for piroxicam in intact tablets

A procedure was developed for different modes of calibration transfer in near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, which included a method for the selection of a subset of samples appropriate for transfer. As a worked example, these guidelines were applied to the transfer of a multivariate calibration model, representing a validated NIR single tablet assay for the active within an intact pharmaceutical product, between three equivalent dispersive NIR transmission instruments. Transfer was first evaluated between two instruments, representing the situation where both were available during calibration development. A spectral correction method alone, applied to the transfer instrument, was not sufficient to facilitate transfer, with further optimisation of the calibration model using a novel wavelength selection algorithm necessary to remove regions of the spectral range that resulted in skewed predictions on the second instrument. Through this approach, a single calibration model was found to be equally accurate and precise on the two instruments. A procedure, using the Kennard-Stone algorithm, is described for determining a reduced number of samples as a transfer set using only the spectral information from the original instrument. The purpose of the subset was to permit transfer to a new instrument where that instrument was not available until after calibration development or where it was undesirable to re-measure the full sample set (i.e. due to excessive reference chemistry). Utilising the transfer set, transfer to a third instrument was evaluated. The calibration model, optimised between the first two instruments, was not directly applicable for the third instrument, with further wavelength selection required to remove a small region of spectral data. On completion, using a full statistical evaluation, a single calibration model was found to be equally accurate and precise on all three instruments.     

Meeting the International Conference on Harmonisation's Guidelines on Validation of Analytical Procedures: quantification as exemplified by a near-infrared reflectance assay of paracetamol in intact tablets

This Perspective explains how the International Conference on Harmonisation's Guidelines on Validation of Analytical Procedures for quantitative methods can be met by near-infrared (NIR) assays of intact pharmaceutical products. Each of the validation characteristics (accuracy, precision, specificity, detection limit, quantification limit, linearity, range, robustness and system suitability testing) is defined, examined for their relevance to quantitative methods and examples given on how they may be used to demonstrate that near-infrared assays are fit for purpose. Methods for preparing samples for calibration are given in detail. The intention is to provide information so that a pharmaceutical manufacturer could validate a method suitable for an application for a variation of a marketing authorisation for an existing product and use a NIR assay instead of the previous method. The perspective is illustrated in detail using a NIR reflectance assay of paracetamol in intact tablets. This proven assay gives results comparable to the British Pharmacopeia ultraviolet assay for paracetamol, the standard errors of calibration and prediction for the NIR method being 0.48% w/w and 0.71% w/w respectively. The method is also precise, the standard deviation and coefficient of variation for six NIR assays on the same day being 0.14% w/w and 0.16% w/w respectively, while measurements over six consecutive days gave 0.31% w/w and 0.36% w/w respectively.     

Simpler spectrophotometric assay of paracetamol in tablets and urine samples

A very fast, economical and simpler direct spectrophotometric method was investigated for paracetamol (PC) determination in aqueous medium without using any chemical reagents. The method is based on the photo-absorption of the analyte at 243 nm after dissolution in water. The change in structure of PC after addition of water was studied by comparing the corresponding FTIR spectra. Optimization studies were conducted by using a 5 microg ml(-1) standard solution of the analyte. Various parameters studied include, time for stability and measurement of spectra, effect of HCl, NaOH, CH(3)COOH and NH(3) for change in absorbance and shift in spectra, interference by some analgesic drugs and some polar solvents and temperature effect. After optimization, Beer's law was obeyed in the range of 0.3-20 microg ml(-1) PC solution with a correlation coefficient of 0.9999 and detection limit of 0.1 microg ml(-1). The newly developed method was successfully applied for PC determination in some locally available tablets and urine samples. The proposed method is very useful for quick analysis of various types of solid and liquid samples containing PC.     

Application of transmission near-infrared spectroscopy to uniformity of content testing of intact steroid tablets

Transmission near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy was used for the rapid and non-destructive determination of the content of a hormone steroid in single intact tablets. Tablets produced for clinical trial purposes containing 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 mg (2.94, 5.88, 8.82, 11.76 and 17.64% m/m, respectively) were used to develop calibration models without the need to specially prepare any out of specification tablets. Reference values for the individual tablets used in the NIR calibration models and test set were measured by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Partial least squares regression using standard normal variate transformed second-derivative spectra over the range 800 to 1040 nm gave the optimum calibration model with a standard error of calibration of 0.52 mg per tablet. Measurements of an independent test set gave comparable results (standard error of prediction 0.31 mg per tablet). Measurement errors for a single tablet (RSD < 2.5% for a given active level) were sufficiently small to allow the procedure to be applied to pharmacopoeial uniformity of content testing of batches of these tablets and permitted the non-destructive testing of 30 tablets in under 20 min as compared to 6 h by HPLC.     

Content uniformity determination of pharmaceutical tablets using five near-infrared reflectance spectrometers: a process analytical technology (PAT) approach using robust multivariate calibration transfer algorithms

Near-infrared calibration models were developed for the determination of content uniformity of pharmaceutical tablets containing 29.4% drug load for two dosage strengths (X and Y). Both dosage strengths have a circular geometry and the only difference is the size and weight. Strength X samples weigh approximately 425 mg with a diameter of 12 mm while strength Y samples, weigh approximately 1700 mg with a diameter of 20 mm. Data used in this study were acquired from five NIR instruments manufactured by two different vendors. One of these spectrometers is a dispersive-based NIR system while the other four were Fourier transform (FT) based. The transferability of the optimized partial least-squares (PLS) calibration models developed on the primary instrument (A) located in a research facility was evaluated using spectral data acquired from secondary instruments B, C, D and E. Instruments B and E were located in the same research facility as spectrometer A while instruments C and D were located in a production facility 35 miles away. The same set of tablet samples were used to acquire spectral data from all instruments. This scenario mimics the conventional pharmaceutical technology transfer from research and development to production. Direct cross-instrument prediction without standardization was performed between the primary and each secondary instrument to evaluate the robustness of the primary instrument calibration model. For the strength Y samples, this approach was successful for data acquired on instruments B, C, and D producing root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 1.05, 1.05, and 1.22%, respectively. However for instrument E data, this approach was not successful producing an RMSEP value of 3.40%. A similar deterioration was observed for the strength X samples, with RMSEP values of 2.78, 5.54, 3.40, and 5.78% corresponding to spectral data acquired on instruments B, C, D, and E, respectively. To minimize the effect of instrument variability, calibration transfer techniques such as piecewise direct standardization (PDS) and wavelet hybrid direct standardization (WHDS) were used. The PDS approach, the RMSEP values for strength X samples were lowered to 1.22, 1.12, 1.19, and 1.08% for instruments B, C, D, and E, respectively. Similar improvements were obtained using the WHDS approach with RMSEP values of 1.36, 1.42, 1.36, and 0.98% corresponding to instruments B, C, D, and E, respectively.     

Validation of a fluorimetric assay for 4-aminophenol in paracetamol formulations

4-aminophenol (4-AP) is the primary degradation product of paracetamol (PARA). According to the European Pharmacopoeia, 50 ppm 4-AP/PARA is the specification limit of 4-aminophenol in paracetamol drug substance. For drug products, often higher specification limits, such as 1000 ppm 4-AP/PARA are applied. This paper describes a fluorimetric method to quantify the low amount of this degradant (50 ppm) in a pharmaceutical preparation, i.e. in paracetamol tablets. The fluorimetric method was validated and the linearity, precision, trueness, range, limit of detection and limit of quantification were determined. They were found acceptable to assay the low amounts of 4-aminophenol in paracetamol tablets.     

Microbiological assay for lomefloxacin in coated tablets

The validation of a microbiological assay, applying cylinder plate method for determination of the activity of lomefloxacin in coated tablets is described. Using a strain of Bacillus subtilis ATCC 9372 as the test organism, lomefloxacin was measured in concentrations ranging from 2.0 to 8.0 microg/mL. The method validation showed that it is linear (r = 0.9999), precise (relative standard deviation = 1.15%), and accurate (it measured the added quantities). The excipients did not interfere in the determination. It was concluded that the microbiological assay is satisfactory for quantitation of lomeflox tablets.     

Calibration transfer between two near-infrared spectrometers based on a wavelet packet transform.

A standardization algorithm, called WPTS, which is based on a wavelet packet transform (WPT) and entropy criteria, is proposed to transfer spectra between two near-infrared spectrometers. First, the spectra of the standardization samples measured on both spectrometers are collected and the difference mean spectrum is calculated; then, a wavelet packet transform is performed and a best WPT-tree is generated, of which a node is selected to establish a transfer matrix. Once the transfer matrix has been built, spectra measured on one spectrometer can be successfully transferred to another spectrometer as if they have been measured directly on the latter. By comparison, the proposed WPTS can reach a transfer performance comparable to WTS1, which is the best existing method, and better than WTS2 and classical PDS by a simpler technique of variable selection and lower computational cost of calibration transfer.     

Construction of a universal model for non-invasive identification of penicillins for injection using near-infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopy

A universal NIR model for identification of 24 types of penicillins for injection has been developed. A total of 194 batches of 24 products from 87 manufacturers in China were used in the study. The classification model is a principal component analysis (PCA) based model consisting of a primary identification library with four sub-libraries. The spectral frequency regions used were 6000–6400 cm⁻¹ and 8400–8900 cm⁻¹ in the main library, 6000–6800 cm⁻¹ in sub-library 1, 4100–12,000 cm⁻¹ in sub-libraries 2 and 3, and 6200–6400 cm⁻¹ and 4700–5000 cm⁻¹ in sub-library 4. The data preprocessing method is the first derivative with nine-point smoothing followed by vector normalization. The distances between spectra were calculated using factors 2–5 for the primary identification library, factors 4–7 for sub-library 1, and factor 2 for sub-libraries 2–4. The specificity of the model was validated, and it had a correct identification rate of approximately 99%. This study has not only confirmed, but also improved the strategy described in our early report (Chong et al. (2009) [11]) to build such a library for the identification of different medicines by NIR.     

Near infra-red reflectance spectroscopic determination of metformin in tablets

A rapid and simple near infra red reflectance spectroscopic method was described for determination of anti-diabetic tablets. Partial least squares method was applied to the Savitsky-Golay smoothed first derivative spectral data revealed over wavelength range 1000-2500 nm from 11 different pulverized tablet batches in 2-mm quartz cell. The results were agreed well with those obtained by the official British Pharmacopoiea 1998 UV assay of metformin.     

Construction of a universal model for non-invasive identification of penicillins for injection using near-infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopy

A universal NIR model for identification of 24 types of penicillins for injection has been developed. A total of 194 batches of 24 products from 87 manufacturers in China were used in the study. The classification model is a principal component analysis (PCA) based model consisting of a primary identification library with four sub-libraries. The spectral frequency regions used were 6000–6400 cm⁻¹ and 8400–8900 cm⁻¹ in the main library, 6000–6800 cm⁻¹ in sub-library 1, 4100–12,000 cm⁻¹ in sub-libraries 2 and 3, and 6200–6400 cm⁻¹ and 4700–5000 cm⁻¹ in sub-library 4. The data preprocessing method is the first derivative with nine-point smoothing followed by vector normalization. The distances between spectra were calculated using factors 2–5 for the primary identification library, factors 4–7 for sub-library 1, and factor 2 for sub-libraries 2–4. The specificity of the model was validated, and it had a correct identification rate of approximately 99%. This study has not only confirmed, but also improved the strategy described in our early report (Chong et al. (2009) [11]) to build such a library for the identification of different medicines by NIR.     

Construction of a universal model for non-invasive identification of cephalosporins for injection using near-infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopy

A universal classification model has been developed for identification of 26 different products of cephalosporins for injection using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy. A total of 324 batches of the 26 products, from 166 manufacturers in China, were used in the study. The classification model was a principle component analysis (PCA)-based method consisting of a primary identification library with four sub-libraries. The accuracy and specificity of the model were tested and were both found to be approximately 95%. The transfer of the classification model between different instruments of the same brand and the same instrument model has been investigated in this study. This study has shown that it is feasible to build a universal classification model to quickly screen for counterfeit drugs in the open market and distribution channels.     

Transfer of near-infrared monochromator calibrations for tobacco constituents to tilting-filter instruments

Near-infrared calibrations for water, reducing sugar, glycerin, propylene glycol, nicotine, and menthol in tobacco blends were first obtained with a monochromator instrument. Transfer of calibrations to a tilting-filter instrument for factory trials is shown to be facilitated greatly by the computer-assisted scheme MTRAN. By means of this software, calibration equations were established for a Neotec 51A instrument that is sufficiently rugged for factory use. The predictive capabilities of the transferred calibrations are similar to those of the research monochromator.     

Microbiological assay for the determination of telithromycin in tablets

This study describes the development and validation of a microbiological assay, applying the cylinder-plate method, for the determination of the antibiotic telithromycin. The microbiological method consisted of a cylinder-plate agar diffusion assay using Micrococcus luteus ATCC 9341 as the test microorganism. The response graphs for standard and sample solutions were linear (r = 0.9987), and no parallelism deviations were detected in the tested concentrations (0.25, 0.5, and 1.0 microg/mL). The interday precision was 2.67%. Recovery values were between 96.75 and 100.91%. A preliminary stability study of telithromycin showed that the microbiological assay is specific for the determination of telithromycin in the presence of its degradation products. The proposed method allows the quantitation of telithromycin in pharmaceutical dosage form and can be used for drug analysis in routine quality control.     

偏最小二乘-近红外漫反射光谱法测定西米替丁药片

研究了应用偏最小二乘法(PLS)同近红外漫反射光谱法结合,对西米替丁片剂药品进行无损非破坏定量分析,建立了最佳的数学校正模型。讨论了波长间隔和主成分数对PLS定量预测能力的影响,预测了未知样品。     

Use of near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy for shelf-life discrimination of green asparagus stored in a cool room under controlled atmosphere

This study sought to evaluate the ability of near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) to classify intact green asparagus, in refrigerated storage under controlled atmosphere, by storage time and post-harvest treatments applied. A total of 468 green asparagus (Asparagus officinalis, L., cultivar UC-157) were sampled after 7, 14, 21 and 28 days of refrigerated storage (2 °C, 95% R.H.) under three controlled atmosphere (CA) treatments: air (21 kPa O₂ + 0.3 kPa CO₂), CA₁ (5 kPa O₂ + 5 kPa CO₂) and CA₂ (10 kPa O₂ + 10 kPa CO₂). Two commercially available spectrophotometers were evaluated for this purpose: a scanning monochromator (SM) of 400-2500 nm and a combination of diode array and scanning monochromator (DASM) of 350-2500 nm. Models developed using partial least squares 2-discriminant analysis (PLS2-DA) correctly classified between 81-100% of samples by post-harvest storage time, depending on the instrument used. Using similar models, the DASM instrument correctly classified 85% of samples by post-harvest treatment, compared with 72% using the SM. These results confirmed that NIR spectroscopy, coupled with the use of chemometric techniques, provides a reliable, accurate method of predicting the shelf-life of asparagus under different storage conditions and as a function of post-harvest treatment applied; the method can be readily applied at industrial level.