ELEMENTAL IMAGING FOR PHARMACEUTICAL TABLET FORMULATION ANALYSIS BY MICRO X-RAY FLUORESCENCE

摘要

The analysis of the distribution of pharmaceutical materials in tablet formulations, such as drugsrnand matrix elements, is critical to product performance and is used in such areas as qualityrncontrol, impurity testing, and process monitoring. Recently imaging techniques, such as Raman,rnnear-IR, and fluorescence imaging, have become popular for “visualization” of pharmaceuticalrnformulations, allowing for spatial and chemical composition information to be obtainedrnsimultaneously. These methods have been primarily focused on molecular imaging, or spatialrnanalysis of the molecular characteristics of the tablet formulation. However, elemental speciesrnare also an important part of pharmaceuticals. Micro X-ray Fluorescence (MXRF) elementalrnimaging offers complementary information to molecular imaging techniques. In this study,rnMXRF was used for the elemental imaging of various commercial pharmaceutical drug andrnvitamin supplements. Specifically, elemental composition and heterogeneity were monitored forrneach different tablet.