Dissolution testing of isoniazid, rifampicin, pyrazinamide and ethambutol tablets using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and multivariate calibration

This work utilized the near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and multivariate calibration to measure the percentage drug dissolution of four active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) (isoniazid, rifampicin, pyrazinamide and ethambutol) in finished pharmaceutical products produced in the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (Brazil). The conventional analytical method employed in quality control tests of the dissolution by the pharmaceutical industry is high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The NIRS is a reliable method that offers important advantages for the large-scale production of tablets and for non-destructive analysis. NIR spectra of 38 samples (in triplicate) were measured using a Bomen FT-NIR 160 MB in the range 1100–2500 nm. Each spectrum was the average of 50 scans obtained in the diffuse reflectance mode. The dissolution test, which was initially carried out in 900 mL of 0.1 N hydrochloric acid at 37 ± 0.5 °C, was used to determine the percentage a drug that dissolved from each tablet measured at the same time interval (45 min) at pH 6.8. The measurement of the four API was performed by HPLC (Shimadzu, Japan) in the gradiente mode. The influence of various spectral pretreatments (Savitzky-Golay smoothing, Multiplicative Scatter Correction (MSC), and Savitzky-Golay derivatives) and multivariate analysis using the partial least squares (PLS) regression algorithm was calculated by the Unscrambler 9.8 (Camo) software. The correlation coefficient (R2) for the HPLC determination versus predicted values (NIRS) ranged from 0.88 to 0.98. The root-mean-square error of prediction (RMSEP) obtained from PLS models were 9.99%, 8.63%, 8.57% and 9.97% for isoniazid, rifampicin, ethambutol and pyrazinamide, respectively, indicating that the NIR method is an effective and non-destructive tool for measurement of drug dissolution from tablets.