Preliminary thermoluminescence and optically stimulated luminescence investigation of commercial pharmaceutical preparations towards the drug sterilization dosimetry

•A study of the potential use of certain drugs in post-sterilization dosimetry with TL and OSL is conducted.•All investigated drugs exhibit detectable OSL and TL signals in a dose range of 20–1400 Gy.•Presence of slow components in the OSL signals is probable.•Dose response data can be fitted with a second order polynomial or a power function.•Preliminary results are promising and a more thorough study is imperative.

Drug sterilization with ionizing radiation is a well-established technology and is gaining ground the last decades due to its numerous advantages. Identification of irradiated drugs would be interesting and, in this respect, the present work aims, for the first time to the authors’ best knowledge, to explore whether OSL and TL can be employed as methods for post-sterilization dosimetry on commercial drugs, i.e., as tools for the detection of irradiated drugs. Five widely used drugs, i.e., Daktarin®, Aspirin®, Panadol®, Brufen® and Procef®, are used for this purpose. Preliminary findings are very promising towards the post-sterilization dosimetry and the use of commercial drugs for normal and/or accidental dosimetry.