PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - B. K. Singh
AU  - D. V. Parwate
AU  - S. K. Shukla
TI  - Screening of Counterfeit Cephalosporin and Discrimination from Penicillins by High-Throughput Chemical Color Tests
DP  - 2010 Mar 01
TA  - PDA Journal of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology
PG  - 97--100
VI  - 64
IP  - 2
4099  - http://journal.pda.org/content/64/2/97.short
4100  - http://journal.pda.org/content/64/2/97.full
SO  - PDA J Pharm Sci Technol2010 Mar 01; 64
AB  - To combat the global upsurge in counterfeiting of antibiotics, rapid screening tests offering identification and binary (yes/no) information are required. Cephalosporins are susceptible to counterfeiting due to high prescription rates and prices. We propose a scheme consisting of a pair of chemical color tests for the screening of cephalosporins. The first test is based on the reducing behavior of cephalosporins towards iodate and iodine under strongly acidic conditions. The second test involves alkaline desulphurization and makes the scheme highly selective for cephalosporins. Penicillins and other antibiotics do not interfere with the proposed scheme. The tests have virtues of simplicity, ruggedness, and high-throughput.© PDA, Inc. 2010