Mutu Gizi Aneka Kudapan Cokibus

Snacks are small meals usually served with drinks, both for daily use and for special occasions. Cokibus snack is a snack that is made to complement the intake of nutrients, especially for children who experience stunting. Makassar City has more malnourished children than other cities/districts, namely 22.1% underweight, 25.2% stunting, and 9.4% wasting. This study aims to determine changes in nutritional quality, namely the levels of macronutrients, iron, and calcium in various Cokibus snacks. This type of research is laboratory research. The sample consisted of 4 kinds of snacks, 1 type of Cokibus consisting of standard, and one substitution treatment of 10% snakehead fish meal. Each sample was repeated twice, so there were 16 samples in total. The research was conducted at the Food Technology Laboratory, Department of Nutrition, Poltekkes, Ministry of Health, Makassar, and the sample was examined at the Quality Control Laboratory of SMTI Makassar. The results showed that per 100 grams of various Cokibuses, the average carbohydrate content decreased -0.1%, protein content increased between 0.21% to 0.72%, fat increased 0.02% to 0.12%, iron increased between 0.43% to 0.63%. Calcium also increased between 0.29% to 0.85%. The snack with the highest increase in nutritional content was Charrot muffins, and the lowest increase in nutritional value was Chobus cupcakes.

RP-HPLC method development and validation for simultaneous estimation of efonidipine hydrochloride ethanolate and telmisartan in their synthetic mixture

A Novel, selective, accurate and rapid Reversed Phase High Performance Liquid Chromatographic (RPHPLC) method for the analysis of Efonidipine Hydrochloride Ethanolate and Telmisartan in binary mixture has been developed and validated. The chromatographic system consisted of a Phenomenex Kinetex ® 5µ C18 Size: 150 * 4.6mm column and the separation was achieved by using ambient temperature with a mobile phase containing mobile Phase Acetonitrile:25mM Phosphate Buffer pH 4.9 (45:55). The samples were monitored at 253 nm for detection at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min and the retention time was about 7.77 and 4.10 mins for Efonidipine Hydrochloride Ehanolate and Telmisartan respectively. The calibration curve was linear over the concentration range 5-30 and 10-60 ?g/mL for Efonidipine Hydrochloride Ehanolate and Telmisartan respectively. The proposed method is accurate in the range of 99.75% - 100.10% recovery and precise (%RSD of intraday variation and % RSD of inter day variation were found to be within the acceptance criteria). Therefore, this method can be used as a more convenient and efficient option for the analysis of Efonidipine Hydrochloride Ehanolate and Telmisartan in Quality control laboratory.

A New, Rapid and Simple RP-HPLC Method for Stability Quantification of a Protease Inhibitor in Tablets

Fosamprenavir calcium is a protease inhibitor widely used in the treatment and prevention of human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. This protease inhibitor serves as a prodrug of amprenavir, offering better oral bioavailability. Although this drug was approved by the FDA in 2003, there are few methods established for quantifying the stability for quality control analysis of fosamprenavir-coated tablets. The purpose of the study was to develop and validate a method for determining the stability of fosamprenavir-coated tablets (Telzir®) that may be applied by any quality control laboratory. Chromatographic separation was performed using a Vertical RP-18 column programmed to run a gradient elution with sodium acetate buffer and acetonitrile. Flow rate was 1.2 mL min−1 for a total run time of 15 min. Ultraviolet detection was set at 264 nm and the use of a photodiode array detector in scan mode allowed selectivity confirmation by peak purity evaluation. The analyte peak was found to be adequately separated from degradation products generated during forced degradation studies. Thus, the proposed method was found to accurately indicate stability and was sufficient for routine quantitative analysis of fosamprenavir in coated tablets without interference from major degradation products and excipients.

COVID-19 vaccines: progress and understanding on quality control and evaluation

The outbreak of COVID-19 has posed a huge threat to global health and economy. Countermeasures have revolutionized norms for working, socializing, learning, and travel. Importantly, vaccines have been considered as most effective tools to combat with COVID-19. As of the beginning of 2021, >200 COVID-19 vaccine candidates, covering nearly all existing technologies and platforms, are being research and development (R&D) by multiple manufacturers worldwide. This has posed a huge obstacle to the quality control and evaluation of those candidate vaccines, especially in China, where five vaccine platforms are deployed in parallel. To accelerate the R&D progress of COVID-19 vaccines, the guidances on R&D of COVID-19 vaccine have been issued by National Regulatory Authorities or organizations worldwide. The Center for Drug Evaluation and national quality control laboratory in China have played a leading role in launching the research on quality control and evaluation in collaboration with relevant laboratories involved in the vaccine R&D, which greatly supported the progression of vaccines R&D, and accelerated the approval for emergency use and conditional marketing of currently vaccine candidates. In this paper, the progress and experience gained in quality control and evaluation of COVID-19 vaccines developed in China are summarized, which might provide references for the R&D of current and next generation of COVID-19 vaccines worldwide.

Simple and Sensitive Analytical Method Development and Validation of Nitazoxanide and Ofloxacin by RP- HPLC

RP-HPLC method was developed for the determination for the validation of Nitazoxanide and Ofloxacin in pharmaceutical dosage form. Chromatographic separation was performed on Develosil ODS HG-5 RP C18, 15x4.6mm, 5µm column, with mobile phase comprising of mixture of ACN: Methanol: Citric acid in the ratio of 50:45:5 v/v, at the flow rate 1.0ml/min and the detection was carried out at 296nm. The comprehensive forced stress testing has been carried out as per USP guidelines. The drug Nitazoxanide is subjected to synthetic Benzamide, and the drug Ofloxacin is subject to synthetic Fluoroquinolone. RP- HPLC method was developed to separate analyte from all other degradation peaks. The method was successfully validated as per ICH guidelines for the purpose of conducting studies of the analyte in quality control laboratory. The drug was subjected to different degradation conditions; it was found to be stable in all degradation conditions. The purposed HPLC method was found to be precise, specific, accurate, rapid and economical for the determination of Nitazoxanide and Ofloxacin in pharmaceutical dosage form. The sample recoveries in all formulations were in good agreement with their respective label claims and this method can be used for routine analysis. The linearity range was found to be 0-50 (µg/ml) for Nitazoxanide and 0-50 (µg/ml) for Ofloxacin. Calibration curve was plotted and correlation co-efficient for the drugs found to be 0.999 and 0.997. Hence the results obtained were within the limits.

Quantification of Scopoletin from Roots of Argyreia Speciosa (Linn. F) Sweet Using HPLC through the Concept of Design of Experiment

Background Roots of Argyreia speciosa (Linn. F) Sweet (family: Convolvulaceae) are used in Ayurveda to treat male reproductive and nervous system disorders. Objective Isolation of scopoletin from the roots of Argyreia speciosa, development and validation of an analytical method using HPLC for the quantification of scopoletin from the root powder of Argyreia speciosa. Method Scopoletin was isolated from chloroform fraction prepared from hydrolyzed methanolic extract and identified using spectral studies. A reverse-phase HPLC based analytical method was developed and optimized using the DoE approach to estimate scopoletin from the roots of Argyreia speciosa. Scopoletin was separated and quantified using HPLC containing C18 column and a PDA detector. The optimized mobile phase was methanol: water (pH∼3.2) [25: 75, %v/v]. Results The Box-Behnken design was used to optimize chromatographic parameters and the extraction procedure. The validation studies showed a linear relationship (r2=0.998) in the range of 1–40 µg/ml. The limit of Detection and Limit of Quantification were found to be 0.28 µg/ml and 0.84 µg/ml, respectively and the recovery values were found between 91.94 to 97.86%. The developed analytical method was found robust too. The amount of scopoletin was estimated to be 0.024 ± 0.0016%w/w from dried root powder. Conclusion The recorded chromatogram and amount of scopoletin determined would serve as one of the standardization parameters to access the quality of raw material containing Argyreia speciosa. Highlights Developed analytical method may be adopted as a part of the standardization procedure for Argyreia speciosa in the quality control laboratory.

Simultaneous estimation of troxerutin and calcium dobesilate in presence of the carcinogenic hydroquinone using green spectrofluorimetric method

In the present study, we conducted two facile and highly sensitive spectrofluorimetric approaches in order to quantify the vasoprotective agents; troxerutin (TROX) and calcium dobesilate (DOB) in the presence of hydroquinone (HQ) (as a highly toxic impurity and potential degradation product of DOB) in commercial formulations and human plasma. The first approach relies simply on using ethanol as an eco-friendly solvent for the estimation of DOB at 345 nm after being excited at 305 nm. The linearity was carefully investigated between DOB concentration and the relative fluorescence intensity in the range of 0.05–0.8 µg ml −1 . Due to the high method simplicity and sensitivity, applying the first approach to quality control analysis and spiked human plasma samples with mean % recoveries 100.74 ± 3.71 adds another merit. The second approach involved rapid conventional fluorimetric estimation of ethanolic TROX solution in TROX/DOB combined dosage forms at 455/350 nm (emission/excitation) with a linear calibration chart covering the range of 0.1–1.2 µg ml −1 . Moreover, the second approach involved a comprehensive study in a trial to solve the problem of superposition of DOB and HQ graph adopting the first derivative synchronous fluorimetric mechanism in ethanol at Δ λ = 60 nm. Therefore, DOB was measured at 286 and 323 nm, while HQ could be quantitated at 301 nm. The Beer–Lambert Law has complied over the ranges of 0.1–1.0 and 0.02–0.4 µg ml −1 for DOB and HQ, respectively. Guidelines adopted by the International Council of Harmonization (ICH) were used to validate the target approaches. The developed methods are more convenient for routine quality control laboratory instead of the time-consuming and sophisticated reported techniques. Moreover, different aspects of evaluating the greenness of the proposed approaches were conducted to have a complete image of their environmental impact.

Development and Validation of a Headspace Gas Chromatographic (HS-GC) Method for Determination of Residual Solvents in Nitazoxanide API

Controlling residual solvents in the drug substances or active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) is mandatory to the specified limits as per the International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH) Q3C guidelines. Residual solvents in pharmaceuticals are mostly determined by Gas Chromatography with Headspace. A simple and sensitive headspace gas chromatographic (HS-GC) method has been developed for the determination of Acetone, Dichloromethane and Cyclohexane in Nitazoxanide API. The separation of analytes was achieved with DB – 624 (30 m length, 0.53 mm inner diameter and 3.0 μm in film thickness) capillary column. Dimethyl formamide was used as a diluent. Nitrogen was used as carrier gas with 3.0 mL/minutes and Flame ionisation detector (FID) for detecting analytes. The oven temperature was set at 60°C for 5 minutes at initial and programmed at a rate of 20°C per minute to a final temperature of 240°C for 2 minutes. Run time was 16 minutes, and total GC cycle time was 25 minutes. The spilt ratio used as 1:20 to get optimum peak response. The developed method was validated as per the ICH guidelines for specificity, accuracy, precision, linearity, range, the limit of detection, the limit of quantification and robustness. The results of validation were indicated no interference, good recoveries, precise, linear, rugged and robust method, suitable for the determination of residual solvents in Nitazoxanide API for research and routine quality control laboratory.

Practical considerations for the Pharmaceutical Quality Control Laboratory during the COVID-19 pandemic

A Pharmaceutical Quality Control Laboratory (PQCL) is one of the critical pillars in the quality assurance of medicines to ensure the availability of safe and efficacious medicines. It is thus of critical importance that the PQCL should be able to continue delivering its service to the greater public. With the reporting of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in December 2019 as the causative agent of COVID-19, a new health and safety threat was introduced into greater society and specifically the workplace. The aim of this manuscript is to provide practical guidance and easy access reference to information sources for PQCL managers in an attempt to ensure safer working environments for the analytical and administrative staff of PQCLs, and to support the continued availability of quality assured medicines world-wide during this pandemic.

Impact of ISO/IEC 17025 laboratory accreditation in sub-Saharan Africa: a case study

Background The number and severity of nonconformities generated during an audit of a medicine testing laboratory indicates its level of quality compliance. Quality standards are established and maintained to ensure the reliability of laboratory test reports. The National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) Quality Control laboratories assess the quality of medicines used by the populace as part of their regulatory function. Although countries desire to have reliable medicine testing facilities, accrediting a national laboratory to international standards poses financial and technical challenges for many low-income countries. Sharing the benefits of laboratory accreditation could help more countries within sub-Saharan Africa overcome existing challenges to achieve accreditation and robust quality systems. This study investigated the impact of ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation on the performance of an NMRA Quality Control laboratory to provide evidence of improved quality compliance within a low-resource setting. Methods Pre- and post- accreditation audits of nonconformities for management and technical requirements of the ISO/IEC17025:2005 standards were evaluated from a Quality Control laboratory in the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), located in Nigeria, West Africa. The following research questions were addressed: “does accreditation impact the adherence to quality standards?” and “does accreditation decrease the severity of nonconformities in Quality Control laboratory audits?” Results Statistical analysis of the pre- to post- accreditation audits from the years 2013 through 2017 revealed a significant decrease in the total number of nonconformities (χ2 = 74, p-value = 9.99e-05, r = 0.67). Further examination of audits from the years 2013 through 2018 audits also revealed a reduction in the number of nonconformities (χ2 = 53, p-value = 9.99e-05, r = 0.62). A reduction in the number of major observations and a decrease in the severity of nonconformities was also observed. Conclusions A higher level of quality compliance was exhibited for the laboratory during the post-accreditation years. Overall, ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation of the NMRA Quality Control laboratory resulted in improved reliability of test reports and enhancement of the laboratory quality system.