Near-infrared spectrometry (NIRS) is a new pharmacopoeial method. It is widely used in the pharmaceutical industry for quality control of medicinal products at various production stages (control of raw materials and finished products), and for detection of substandard and counterfeit drugs.The aim of the study was to assess the feasibility of using NIRS as an identification test for active ingredients during pre-marketing quality control of medicinal products.Materials and methods: 327 drugs samples represented as solid and semisolid dosage forms were tested by NIRS following their examination by well-established pharmacopoeial Identification methods during pre-marketing laboratory evaluation. The NIR spectra of the test samples were compared with the spectral library classification models.Results: NIRS confirmed the identity of 3.1% of the tested medicinal products. It was demonstrated that library classification models could be used for identification of only those medicines that were produced by a specific manufacturer, i.e. for confirmation of medicine identity.Conclusions: the NIRS method is unpractical as an Identification test for active ingredients in medicinal products during the pre-marketing laboratory evaluation stage. The main limitations of NIRS are lack of complete sets of library classification models for all medicinal products available in the market and non-reproducibility of spectral library data obtained with a different instrument.

The inclusion of requirements for independent determination of arsenic, cadmium, mercury, and lead, and the current sample preparation techniques into the State Pharmacopoeia of the Russian Federation (Ph. Rus.) requires the revision of the existing limits for elemental toxicants in herbal substances and herbal medicinal products produced from them.The aim of the study was to analyse the data on elemental toxicant content obtained during quality control of herbal substances (herbs, medicinal herb mixtures, extracts, and tinctures) using current test methods and sample preparation techniques, and to compare the obtained results with the Russian and foreign scientific and specialist literature.Materials and methods: the internal data on the content of critical heavy metals and arsenic in different dosage forms of herbal medicinal products, which were obtained by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry after sample preparation by decomposition in closed vessels, were compared with literature data. Results: it was demonstrated that the content of lead, cadmium, and mercury in all the test samples did not exceed the Ph. Rus. limits and was consistent with the analysed literature. The arsenic content in some herbal medicinal products was higher than the established Ph. Rus. limits, but complied with the less stringent Ph. Eur. and USP requirements for herbal substances. The authors investigated the link between the content of elemental toxicants and the place of collection and the part of the plant being tested. It was shown that different types of medicinal plants had a tendency to accumulate particular elements. The authors determined the content of the elements to be controlled in extracts and tinctures. The differences in the Russian and foreign requirements for the content of elemental toxicants may be attributed to the method of obtaining experimental data that form the basis for the setting of limits.Conclusions: the results of the study confirm the validity of the existing limits for elemental toxicants in herbal medicinal products. The authors demonstrated the need to revise the existing limits for arsenic in herbal medicinal products.

Описана процедура валидации методики анализа содержания нормируемых элементных токсикантов в лекарственном растительном сырье на масс-спектрометре с индуктивно-связанной плазмой при использовании микроволновой кислотной минерализации. Предлагаемая методика пробоподготовки обеспечивает максимальный переход тяжелых металлов в раствор при неполном разложении органической матрицы с помощью концентрированной азотной кислоты. Для оценки применимости методики были выбраны образцы разных морфологических частей растений: корневища аира, трава череды, плоды можжевельника. На основании полученных экспериментальных данных была проведена оценка линейности, предела количественного определения, правильности, сходимости и внутрилабораторной прецизионности валидируемой методики. На основе определенных коэффициентов извлечения мышьяка, свинца, ртути и кадмия были рассчитаны стандартные отклонения, коэффициенты вариации, доверительные интервалы, систематические погрешности, F-критерии Фишера и t-критерии Стьюдента. Показано, что полученные статистические характеристики удовлетворяют критериям приемлемости валидационных параметров, представленным в отечественной и зарубежной нормативной документации.