Analysis of the packaging enclosing a counterfeit pharmaceutical tablet using Raman microscopy and two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy

Counterfeit medicine is a serious global problem. Vibrational spectroscopy combined with chemometric methods can be used to combat the pharmaceutical counterfeit problem. In this study, packages containing counterfeit tablets were analyzed using Raman microscopy and two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy. Two color regions were analyzed and different chemical origins from the color region could be resolved by two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy. Univariate Raman images were used to show the spatial distribution of the chemical components and confirm the findings of two-dimensional correlation analysis.