Gloss measurement in detection of surface quality of pharmaceutical tablets: a case study of screening of genuine and counterfeit antimalaria tablets

Background: The surface quality of pharmaceutical tablets plays an important role, especially in the drug release of a tablet and hence affects the bioavailability of the drug. Furthermore, important tablet’s properties such as coating uniformity and mechanical integrity that can be predicted based on the known surface properties manifest the inevitable link between a tablet’s surface property (e.g. Gloss, average surface roughness) and its efficacy. Methods: In this article, laboratory based and handheld glossmeters as well as an optical profilometer were utilized for the detection of the surface properties of commercially available pharmaceutical tablets. Results: As a case study, we measured the surface properties of authentic and counterfeit antimalarial tablets. Clear differences between authentic and fake tablets were detected based on the measured average surface roughness and gloss values of the tablet samples. Conclusions: It is worth mentioning that this is the first time we have utilized both glossmeters for the purpose of surface quality investigation of real pharmaceutical tablets. It is therefore suggested that the handheld glossmeter is a useful device for quick inspection of tablet’s surface quality both in the production environments as well as for field screening of fake tablets.