Spectro-chemometric determination of panthenol enantiomeric excess in pharmaceutical products

Antibiotic, soothing and healing properties of panthenol are exploited in various pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. Only D-panthenol is biologically active while its L-form might counteract the biological effectiveness of the D-enantiomer. Hydrating and moisturizing effects are exhibited by both enantiomers. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a rapid and cheap method for the determination of panthenol enantiomeric excess in pharmaceutical preparations. In this study, b-cyclodextrin was used as a chiral selector for the recognition of panthenol enantiomers. Inclusion complexes formed by b-cyclodextrin and the analyte showed small differences in NIR and UV/VIS spectra compared by chemometric assessment. Based on the figure of merit and model characteristics, PLS calibration model in the selected range of NIR spectra is preferred. UV/VIS spectrometry has the disadvantage of complicated sample preparation compared to NIR spectrometry. Results reached by both proposed methods were in good agreement. Statistical investigation of the results (by Student t-test and Fisher F-test) confirmed that the proposed methods are comparable and applicable to chiral analysis of panthenol pharmaceutical preparations.