Assay of effervescent tablets by near-infrared spectroscopy in transmittance and reflectance mode: acetylsalicylic acid in mono and combination formulations.

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was used to determine acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) in three different effervescent tablet formulations. The nominal ASA concentrations were 14.9% in the single substance formulation (ASA Mono), 17.4% in the combination with ascorbic acid (ASA + C) and 8.7% in the combination with paracetamol and ascorbic acid (ASA Combi). In each case the tablet matrix was composed of seven excipients typical of effervescent tablets. All three formulations were measured as intact tablets in diffuse transmittance and reflectance and as powdered tablets in diffuse reflectance. Calibration was carried out by partial least square (PLS) regression of second derivative spectra. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used as the reference method. The relative standard errors of calibration (RSEC) achieved for the three NIR methods were between 1.20 and 2.01% for ASA Mono, between 1.91 and 2.21% for ASA + C and between 2.41 and 4.50% for ASA Combi. The results obtained in transmittance mode were comparable with those obtained in reflectance mode, which is normally used in NIRS. In the test sets of ASA Mono and ASA + C relative root mean square (RRMS) values between 2.21 and 3.13% were obtained. The three NIR methods applied are thus suitable for the quantitative determination of ASA in effervescent tablets and have the advantage over HPLC of being rapid and simply carried out with little sample preparation; they are nondestructive and do not require any environmentally harmful reagents.