Liquid-liquid extraction is a widely used technique of sample preparation in biomedical analysis. In spite of the high pre-concentration capacities of liquidliquid extraction, it suffers from a number of limitations including time and effort consumption, large organic solvent utilization, and poor performance in highly polar analytes. Homogeneous liquid-liquid extraction is an alternative sample preparation technique that overcomes some drawbacks of conventional liquid-liquid extraction, and allows employing greener organic solvents in sample treatment. In homogeneous liquid-liquid extraction, a homogeneous phase is formed between the aqueous sample and the water-miscible extractant, followed by chemically or physically induced phase separation. To form the homogeneous phase, aqueous samples are mixed with water-miscible organic solvents, waterimmiscible solvents/cosolvents, surfactants, or smart polymers. Then, phase separation is induced chemically (adding salt, sugar, or buffer) or physically (changing temperature or pH). This mode is rapid, sustainable, and cost-effective in comparison with other sample preparation techniques. Moreover, homogeneous liquid-liquid extraction is more suitable for the extraction of delicate macromolecules such as enzymes, hormones, and proteins and it is more compatible with liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry, which is a vital technique in metabolomics and proteomics. In this review, the principle, types, applications, automation, and technical aspects of homogeneous liquid-liquid extraction are discussed.

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Background: Favipiravir is an antiviral drug that was recently approved for the management of COVID-19 infection. Aim: This work aimed to develop a new method, using sugaring-out induced homogeneous liquid–liquid microextraction followed by HPLC/UV for the determination of favipiravir in human plasma. Materials & methods: The optimum extraction conditions were attained using 500 μl of tetrahydrofuran as an extractant and 1400 mg of fructose as a phase-separating agent. Results: The developed method was validated according to the US FDA bioanalytical guidelines and was found linear in the range of 25-80,000 ng/ml with a correlation coefficient of 0.999. Conclusion: These results showed that the developed method was simple, easy, valid and adequately sensitive for determination of favipiravir in plasma for bioequivalence studies.

Salting-out induced liquid–liquid microextraction method has been developed for plasma sample treatment before determination of alogliptin by high performance liquid chromatography with UV detection. Several parameters were optimized to achieve maximum enrichment, including type of extractant, volume of extractant, type of anion, type of cation, salt amount and pH. The optimum conditions were attained using 500 µL of acetonitrile, added to 1 mL of aqueous sample containing 250 mg of sodium chloride at pH 12. An RP-HPLC method was developed and validated according to the International Conference on Harmonization guidelines M10. The method was linear in the concentration range of 0.1 to 50 µg/mL (correlation coefficient = 0.997). The limit of detection was 0.019 µg/mL and limit of quantitation was 0.06 µg/mL. The method was accurate and precise with an average % recovery of 99.7% and a % relative standard deviation ranging between 1.5 and 2.5. These results showed that the salting-out induced liquid–liquid microextraction methods could be better than other sample preparation protocols in terms of sensitivity, easiness, solvent consumption and waste reduction.

Miniaturization of liquid‐liquid extraction is a growing field of sample preparation to reduce solvent consumption, protect the environment, and preserve operators’ health. In this work, four different modes of liquid‐liquid microextraction have been compared including dispersive liquid‐liquid microextraction, binary and ternary salting‐out, and sugaring‐out induced liquid‐liquid microextraction. The extraction efficiency was evaluated by the enrichment factors of 14 different drugs from three pharmacological classes. Compared with the other modes, sugaring‐out induced liquid‐liquid microextraction was found to be the most efficient and, thus, it was applied for sample preparation of the antivirals in human plasma. Method optimization was performed using response surface methodology for the sugar type and amount (in mg), the sample pH, the equilibration time (in min), and the extractant volume (in µL). The method was then validated and found linear in the concentration range of 0.10‐10 µg/mL for daclatasvir, 0.05‐10 µg/mL for velpatasvir, and 0.20‐10 µg/mL for ledipasvir, with correlation coefficients in the range 0.996‐0.999. These results shows that sugaring‐out induced liquid‐liquid microextraction could be a more efficient microextraction mode for preparation of biological samples. Compared with other types of microextraction, sugaring‐out induced liquid‐liquid microextraction is greener, simpler, and cost‐effective, with less tendency to affect the sample pH.

The coronavirus pandemic is a worldwide hazard that poses a threat to millions of individuals throughout the world. This pandemic is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which was initially identified in Wuhan, China's Hubei provincial capital, and has since spread throughout the world. According to the World Health Organization's Weekly Epidemiological Update, there were more than 250 million documented cases of coronavirus infections globally, with five million fatalities. Early detection of coronavirus does not only reduce the spread of the virus, but it also increases the chance of curing the infection. Spectroscopic techniques have been widely used in the early detection and diagnosis of COVID-19 using Raman, Infrared, mass spectrometry and fluorescence spectroscopy. In this review, the reported spectroscopic methods for COVID-19 detection were discussed with emphasis on the practical aspects, limitations and applications.

Objective: The center of drug evaluation and research (CDER) in the food and drug administration (FDA) approves new drugs every year. This review discusses the novel drugs of the FDA in 2018 with emphasis on the breakthrough drugs, the milestones in the approved list, and drugs with the highest expected sales in 2024. Method: The following scientific search engines were surveyed for the clinical trials of the drugs approved by FDA in 2018: Pubmed, Springer link, ScienceDirect, Scopus, Wiley online library, Taylor and Francis, and Google Scholar. The total forecast sales were compared based on information from Cortellis database, EvaluatePharma, and Nature Biobusiness Briefs. Results: The 2018 year was full of good news for the drug market in the USA, with 59 new drug approvals by FDA, which is the highest number of approvals in the last twenty years. The oncology and the antimicrobial drugs represent almost 50% of the new list, which gives hope to cancer patients and subjects with infectious diseases. In the 2018 FDA list, a number of drugs are expected to exceed 1$ billion dollars of sales by 2024. Conclusion: The new drugs approved by FDA in 2018 have been reviewed. This year showed the highest number of new drug approvals in the last two decades. Among the 59 drugs approved in 2018, 14 drugs are considered breakthrough which revives hope for many poorly managed diseases. The list also contains 19 drugs that are first in class and 43 that were given priority reviews.

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