Smartphone-based digital image colorimetry for the determination of vancomycin in drugs

Abstract

A simple smartphone-based digital image colorimetry is proposed for the determination of vancomycin in drugs. The analytical method relied on the reaction of vancomycin with copper(II) in ethanol–water medium with pH 4.3. The reaction resulted in the formation of a blue–grey complex, presenting an absorption maximum at 555 nm. A mobile application was used for smartphone-based analysis to decompose the individual channels of the colour model representations. The determination was performed using three smartphones followed by a comparison of the outcomes with spectrophotometric measurements. The most optimal analytical parameters were achieved for the H channel. The linear ranges obtained for the smartphone-based method proved to be comparable to the spectrophotometric range of 0.044–1.500 g dm−3 and were 0.049–1.500 g dm−3, 0.057–1.500 g dm−3, and 0.040–1.500 g dm−3 for Smartphones 1–3, respectively. Moreover, the determined coefficients of variance (CV, n = 9) and limits of detection (LOD) were 2.3% and 0.015 g dm−3, 6.2% and 0.017 g dm−3, and 2.5% and 0.012 g dm−3, respectively. Whereas for spectrophotometry, the obtained precision, CV was of 0.9% and a LOD of 0.013 g dm−3. The accuracy of the method was verified using model samples, generally the results were obtained with accuracy better than 10.9% (relative error). The method was applied to the determination of vancomycin in drugs. The results obtained by smartphone-based colorimetry did not differ from the expected values for more than 2.6%, were consistent with each other and with the results of spectrophotometric determinations. Graphical abstract

Smartphone Digital Image Colorimetry: An Affordable Easy-To-Use Approach for Hands-On Training in Resource-Limited Settings

“…In biomedical applications, one of the notable areas SDIC has been applied is the quantification of the drug's active pharmacologic ingredients [54] and point-of-care antibiotic residual [54]. Mermer and colleagues reported standardization experiments on an SDIC method for the determination of vancomycin (antibiotics) content in drugs based on the colorimetric reaction of vancomycin with copper(II) in an acidic pH [55]. Exploring the simplicity of SDIC, James and Honeychurch [56] described the colorimetric determination of acetaminophen via its reduction of ferricyanide to give ferrocyanide, which is further converted to Prussian Blue upon the addition of iron(III), as shown in Figure 6.…”

A Novel Method to Assay Aspirin in Pharmaceutical Formulations by Smartphone Camera-Based Image Scanning Densitometry

“…Quantitative analysis of many antibiotics like vancomycin, gentamicin, neomycin sulfate resazurin, etc. has also been carried out using smartphone-based colorimetric techniques (32)(33)(34). However, it is reported that the images captured from a smartphone suffer from the effects of ambient light and may lead to poor accuracy (35).…”