Jožef Stefan International Postgraduate School, Ljubljana 1000, Slovenia.
Institute of Computational Physics, School of Engineering, Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Technikumstrasse 9, Winterthur 8401, Switzerland.
Sensors (Basel). 2018 Nov 23;18(12):4098. doi: 10.3390/s18124098.
There is a need for fast and reliable quality and authenticity control tools of pharmaceutical ingredients. Among others, hormone containing drugs and foods are subject to scrutiny. In this study, terahertz (THz) spectroscopy and THz imaging are applied for the first time to analyze melatonin and its pharmaceutical product Circadin. Melatonin is a hormone found naturally in the human body, which is responsible for the regulation of sleep-wake cycles. In the THz frequency region between 1.5 THz and 4.5 THz, characteristic melatonin spectral features at 3.21 THz, and a weaker one at 4.20 THz, are observed allowing for a quantitative analysis within the final products. Spectroscopic THz imaging of different concentrations of Circadin and melatonin as an active pharmaceutical ingredient in prepared pellets is also performed, which permits spatial recognition of these different substances. These results indicate that THz spectroscopy and imaging can be an indispensable tool, complementing Raman and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopies, in order to provide quality control of dietary supplements and other pharmaceutical products.
需要快速、可靠的药物成分质量和真实性控制工具。其中，含激素的药物和食品受到严格审查。本研究首次将太赫兹（THz）光谱和太赫兹成像技术应用于褪黑素及其药物产品 Circadin 的分析。褪黑素是一种天然存在于人体中的激素，负责调节睡眠-觉醒周期。在 1.5 THz 至 4.5 THz 的太赫兹频率范围内，观察到 3.21 THz 处的特征性褪黑素光谱特征，以及较弱的 4.20 THz 处的光谱特征，允许对成品进行定量分析。还对不同浓度的 Circadin 和褪黑素作为制备丸剂中的活性药物成分进行了太赫兹光谱成像，这使得可以对这些不同物质进行空间识别。这些结果表明，太赫兹光谱和成像技术可以成为拉曼和傅里叶变换红外光谱学的不可或缺的工具，以提供膳食补充剂和其他药物产品的质量控制。
