Simultaneous Spectrofluorimetric Determination of Paracetamol and Caffeine in Pharmaceutical Preparations in Solid‐Phase Using Partial Least Squares Multivariate Calibration

Abstract

Partial least‐squares algorithm (PLS)‐1 was used for the solid‐phase spectrofluorimetric determination of paracetamol (PA) and caffeine (CF) in pharmaceutical formulations. In despite of the closely overlapping spectral bands, the method allows the simultaneous quantification and sample preparation prior to analysis is not required. The calibration set consisted of 96 samples with 100–400 mg/g⁻¹ PA plus 10–65 mg/g⁻¹ CF; another set of 25 samples was used for external validation. Agreement between predicted and experimental concentrations was fair (r=0.993 and 0.964 for PA and CF models). Prediction performance was evaluated in terms of the coefficient of variability (CV), relative predictive determination (RPD), and ratio error range (RER). The PLS‐1 model was used for the determination of PA and CF in pharmaceutical formulations.

Keywords:

• Solid‐phase analysis
• fluorescence spectroscopy
• paracetamol
• caffeine
• PLS
• acetaminophen

Financial support from FAPESP (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo) and CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico) is greatly appreciated.