The Taste of Commercially Available Clarithromycin Oral Pharmaceutical Suspensions in the Palestinian Market: Electronic Tongue and In Vivo Evaluation

Physical properties and mass models of Deglet Noor and Arichti semi-dry Algerian date fruits: A comparative study

For thousands of years, date fruit (Phoenix dactylifera L.) has been a popular diet in arid and semi-arid locations. It has religious importance for Muslims and is especially important during the holy month of Ramadan. The global output of date fruits has been continuously expanding, with Arab nations accounting for a sizable portion. The emphasis of this research is on two popular semi-dry Algerian date fruit types, Deglet Noor and Arechti, which are grown in the Ziban region. These fruits' physical parameters, such as size, sphericity, surface area, volumes, and density, were determined. The goal of this study was to create a mass model based on these physical attributes to help in the grading and sorting of date fruits. Fruit mass was shown to be closely connected to linear dimensions, arithmetic and geometric mean diameters, surface area, and volumes. Correlations between mass and physical attributes were established using a variety of mathematical models, including linear, quadratic, S-curve, and power models. The results demonstrated the applicability of specific factors for mass modeling, offering useful insights for the development of system sizing and conservation. With good correlation, multivariate data analysis was employed to correctly estimate the mass of both kinds. This research advances our understanding of the physical features of Algerian date fruits and their connection to mass, allowing for better handling, sorting, and packing processes in the worldwide date market.

Development of Taste Sensor with Lipid/Polymer Membranes for Detection of Umami Substances Using Surface Modification

A taste sensor employs various lipid/polymer membranes with specific physicochemical properties for taste classification and evaluation. However, phosphoric acid di(2-ethylhexyl) ester (PAEE), employed as one of the lipids for the taste sensors, exhibits insufficient selectivity for umami substances. The pH of sample solutions impacts the dissociation of lipids to influence the membrane potential, and the response to astringent substances makes accurate measurement of umami taste difficult. This study aims to develop a novel taste sensor for detecting umami substances like monosodium L-glutamate (MSG) through surface modification, i.e., a methodology previously applied to taste sensors for non-charged bitter substance measurement. Four kinds of modifiers were tested as membrane-modifying materials. By comparing the results obtained from these modifiers, the modifier structure suitable for measuring umami substances was identified. The findings revealed that the presence of carboxyl groups at para-position of the benzene ring, as well as intramolecular H-bonds between the carboxyl group and hydroxyl group, significantly affect the effectiveness of a modifier in the umami substance measurement. The taste sensor treated with this type of modifier showed excellent selectivity for umami substances.

Preparation and Characterization of Patch Loaded with Clarithromycin Nanovesicles for Transdermal Drug Delivery

Clarithromycin (CLR), categorized as a Biopharmaceutical Classification System class II drug, has several gastrointestinal tract side effects and an extremely unpalatable bitter taste. The current study aimed to design transdermal patch-embedded CLR niosomes to overcome the aforementioned CLR-related challenges. Various niosomal formulations were successfully fabricated and characterized for their morphology, size, in vitro release, and antimicrobial efficacy. Subsequently, the CLR niosomes were loaded into transdermal patches using the solvent casting method. The polydispersity index of the niosomes ranged from 0.005 to 0.360, indicating the uniformity of the niosomes. The encapsulating efficiency (EE)% varied from 12 to 86%. The optimal Chol: surfactant ratio for drug release was found to be 0.5:1. In addition, the encapsulation of CLR into niosomal nanovesicles did not reduce the antibacterial activity of the CLR. The niosomal patch had a significantly higher permeability coefficient of CLR than the conventional patch. In addition to that, a shear-thinning behavior was observed in the niosomal gels before loading them into a niosomal patch. The flux (Jss) of the niosomal patch was significantly higher than the conventional patch by more than 200 times. In conclusion, niosome-based transdermal patches could be a promising method for the transdermal drug delivery of class II drugs and drugs experiencing GIT side effects.

The use of electronic tongue and sensory panel on taste evaluation of pediatric medicines: a systematic review

The palatability of medications is an essential factor for children's adherence to drug treatment. Several methods for drug taste assessment have been developed. The aim of this review is to explore the literature reports of the main methods for the evaluation of medicines taste, named electronic tongue (e-tongue, in vitro) and human sensory panel. A systematic search was performed up to March 2020 and a total of 88 articles were selected. The e-tongue (57.5%) has been more frequently described than the sensory panel (10.3%), while some articles (32.2%) used both techniques. 74.7% of the articles mentioned 'pediatric', 'paediatric' or 'children' in the text, but only 19.5% developed formulations targeting pediatric audience and sensory testing in children is rarely seen. The e-tongue has predominance of use in the taste evaluation of pediatric medicines probably since it is fast, easy to perform and risk free, besides presenting less imprecise data and no fatigue. The human panel is more realistic, despite its intrinsic variability. In this sense, it is proposed the use of e-tongue as a fast way to select the most promising sample(s) and, after that, the sensory panel should be applied in order to confirm the taste masking.

Identification of substandard drug products using electronic tongue: cefdinir suspension as a pilot example

Background

Electronic tongue (ET) is a well-established technology that is used to detect the taste of a food or a medicinal product and to differentiate between different products based on their tastes. In addition, it can be used to monitor environmental parameters and biochemical and biological processes.

Purpose

This study aims to assess any correlation between the results of pharmacopeial quality control (ie, assay, impurities, and dissolution, etc) and ET analysis for reconstituted cefdinir (CR) suspension over 10 days (ie, shelf-life).

Methods

The reconstituted CR suspension was tested for several quality attributes such as dissolution behavior, pH, assay, related substances, and microbial contamination. An HPLC analytical method was verified and then used for chemical analysis. The taste of CR reconstituted suspension was followed over 10 days and was then compared with the quality control results. Moreover, Pearson’s correlation test was used to find a correlation between chemical analysis results and ET results.

Results

Pearson’s test of correlation showed a significant correlation (p-value <0.05) between the conventional chemical analysis results (% of CR, % of preservative, % of released CR, % of total impurities and % of total undefined impurities in the reconstituted suspension) with the change of their taste (ie, % pattern discrimination index). ET was able to correlate the results of stability of CR suspension with the change in the taste of the suspension during the shelf life of the reconstituted suspension.

Conclusion

The obtained results may suggest the use of ET as a new tool for a rapid assessment of the general quality of a suspension. Moreover, such results would suggest the use of ET to identify fake or substandard products, especially those have been stored under inappropriate storage conditions.

Evaluating the potential use of electronic tongue in early identification and diagnosis of bacterial infections

BACKGROUND

Electronic tongue (ET) is a simple device that may have some applications in the medical field as an alternative tool to traditional diagnostic methods. The aim of this study is to evaluate the potential use and accuracy of ET in the diagnosis of certain bacterial infections.

METHODS

An alpha-Astree ET was used for the detection of known bacterial strains Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923), Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853) which were tested at three-time intervals; 15, 18, and 24 hrs (hr). This was used to build a qualitative and quantitative mathematical model to detect the presence of bacteria at the earliest possible time. When the model is robust, new unknown samples were tested after 15 hrs of bacterial growth. Samples were identified using multivariate data analysis techniques.

RESULTS

Principal Component Analysis (PCA) scores showed that ET can distinguish between the three bacteria at different times 15, 18, and 24 hrs using different sensors. In the PCA scores plots, the discrimination index was 83% at 15 hrs, 88% at 18 hrs, and 96% at 24 hrs, the variances explained by the two principal components were 84%, 99%, and 97% at 15, 18, and 24 hrs, respectively. Fifteen hours was the earliest time at which the bacteria could be detected. Then six samples of E.coli (as unknown samples) were tested after 15 hrs of inoculation, the two discrimination function explained about 100% of the variance (ie, 79.7+22.3%) and all unknown samples were identified as E.coli.

CONCLUSION

ET could differentiate between types of bacteria in addition to identifying unknown bacterial cultures (E. coli) at times shorter than that required in the current culture-based methods (24-48 hrs), this could be of a great value in early diagnosis of life-threatening infections.

Critical review of electronic nose and tongue instruments prospects in pharmaceutical analysis

Electronic nose (enose, EN) and electronic tongue (etongue, ET) have been designed to simulate human senses of smell and taste in the best possible way. The signals acquired from a sensor array, combined with suitable data analysis system, are the basis for holistic analysis of samples. The efficiency of these instruments, regarding classification, discrimination, detection, monitoring and analytics of samples in different types of matrices, is utilized in many fields of science and industry, offering numerous practical applications. Popularity of both types of devices significantly increased during the last decade, mainly due to improvement of their sensitivity and selectivity. The electronic senses have been employed in pharmaceutical sciences for, among others, formulation development and quality assurance. This paper contains a review of some particular applications of EN and ET based instruments in pharmaceutical industry. In addition, development prospects and a critical summary of the state of art in the field were also surveyed.