Examples of NIRA application

Extensive use has been made of NIRA in agriculture where it has been used to determine the protein, fibre, water and triglyceride contents of feedstuffs and the quality of crops. By training the computer to recognise the near-infrared (NIR) spectra of the major components making up a crop, the individual components can be monitored in the crop itself. The components that can be measured by NIRA often cannot be measured by the usual spectroscopic methods. The fundamental work done in the quality control of agricultural products can be readily extended to the quality control of pharmaceutical formulations. 

Determination of particle size in United States Pharmacopoeia (USP) grade aspirin 

The effect on differences in blend time on the uniformity of a formulation containing lactose and hydrochlorothiazide. Reproduced with permission from J. Pharm. Biomed. Anal, (see Reference 5). 

Determination of active ingredients in multicomponent dosage forms 

NIRA has been used to analyse multicomponent tablets, e.g. aspirin/caffeine/ butalbarbital, and ean examine such tablets in a pass/fail manner. The tablets fail 

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