Comparison of FT-NIR Transmission and HPLC to Assay Montelukast in Its Pharmaceutical Tablets

For several years, near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has become an analytical technique of great interest for the pharmaceutical industry, particularly for the non-destructive analysis of dosage forms. The goal of this study is to show the capacity of this new technique to assay the active ingredient in low-dosage tablets. NIR spectroscopy is a rapid, non-destructive technique and does not need any sample preparation. A prediction model was built by using a partial least square regression fit method. The NIR assay was performed by transmission. The results obtained by NIR spectroscopy were compared with the conventional HPLC method for Montelukast tablets produced by Sigma pharmaceutical corp. The study showed that Montelukast tablets can be individually analyzed by NIR with high accuracy. It was shown that the variability of this new technique is less important than that of the conventional method which is the HPLC with UV detection.