The identification of cephalosporins antibiotics using IR spectroscopy and chemometric algorithms

The use of mid-field infrared spectroscopy in combination with chemometric algorithms for the identification of cephalosporin antibiotics in the form of injectable powders is demonstrated. III generation cephalosporins have been selected as objects of the study: ceftriaxone, ceftazidime, cefotaxime, which are widely used in pharmaceutical practice. IR spectra of the medical preparations have been recorded using an FT-801 Fourier transform IR spectrometer with an attenuated total reflection (ATR) attachment. The results have been processed in the Microsoft Excel computer package with the XLSTAT add-in using the principal component analysis (PCA), the k-means method and agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AНC). It has been shown that using these algorithms it is possible to identify the studied cephalosporin antibiotics from different manufacturers. In the PCA method, points corresponding to samples are located in separate quadrants depending on the nature of the antibiotic. The k-means method has been used to divide antibiotics into classes; differences are also visible in the classes themselves, depending on the manufacturer. The clearest separation of cephalosporins is observed when data are presented using the AHC method in the form of a dendrogram.