Non-destructive colorimetric analysis of drugs for fluoroquinolones using a smartphone

A technique for non-destructive analysis of drugs for fluoroquinolones by diffuse reflection of IR radiation using a smartphone and a device printed on a 3D printer is proposed. It is shown that the diffuse reflection of IR radiation (850 nm) from tablets containing fluoroquinolones as an active substance can be recorded by a smartphone camera. The blister pack and the shell of tablets do not interfere with the passage of IR radiation, which is confirmed by a comparative analysis of the results of the colorimetric determination of fluoroquinolones in drug samples in a package, without it, and on a tablet split. A correlation of the analytical signal with the concentration of the active substance is observed regardless of the test option. The possibility of using chemometric methods providing the reduction of the time of analysis and visualization of the data obtained is shown. The dataset was processed by the principal component analysis (PCA), hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), partial least squares regression (PLS), and the method of least squares using PhotoMetrix PRO^® software. The aforementioned algorithms also provided identification of drugs by the manufacturer. Colorimetric signals from tablets of the same manufacturer form separate clusters on the charts constructed using the HCA algorithm. Data obtained using PCA indicate the location of signals from tablets from different manufacturers in separate quadrants, which makes it possible to identify the pharmaceutical company, as well as the country of manufacture, e.g., the drug Ciprofloxacin with different concentrations of the active substance manufactured in Russia is located in quadrants 2 and 4, whereas the drugs manufactured in India are located in quadrants 1 and 3. The relative standard deviation of the analysis results did not exceed 0.07. The use of chemometric methods of analysis in determination of active substances is considered in detail.

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