Direct detection and identification of active pharmaceutical ingredients in intact tablets by helium plasma ionization (HePI) mass spectrometry

Athula B. Attygalle, Freneil B. Jariwala, Julius Pavlov, Zhihua Yang, Jason A. Mahr, Mabel Oviedo

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

A simple modification converts an electrospray ion source to an ambient-pressure helium plasma ionization source without the need of additional expensive hardware. Peaks for active ingredients were observed in the spectra recorded from intact pharmaceutical tablets placed in this source. A flow of heated nitrogen was used to thermally desorb analytes to gas phase. The desorption temperatures were sometimes as low as 50 °C. For example, negative-ion spectra recorded from an aspirin tablet showed peaks at m/z 137 (salicylate anion) and 179 (acetylsalicylate anion) which were absent in the background spectra. The overall ion intensity increased as the desorption gas temperature was elevated. Within the same acquisition experiment, both positive- and negative-ion signals for acetaminophen were recorded from volatiles emanating from Tylenol tablets by switching the polarity of the capillary back and forth. Moreover, different preparations of acetaminophen tablets could be distinguished by their ion-intensity thermograms.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)166-172
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Pharmaceutical Analysis
Volume4
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2014

Keywords

  • DART
  • DESI
  • HePI
  • Helium plasma ionization
  • Pharmaceutical tablets

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