Resource management in HPLC: Unveiling a green face of pharmaceutical analysis

Abstract

High-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) is a technique of paramount importance in the analysis of pharmaceuticals because of its ability to separate moderately polar to less polar compounds, such as drugs and related substances. The concept of green analytical chemistry (GAC) aims to provide more environmentally friendly and safer analytical methods in terms of reagents, energy, and waste. One of the major challenges of GAC is to find an appropriate approach to evaluate the greenness of analytical methods. An extension of GAC, called white analytical chemistry (WAC), has been introduced to consider not only environmental friendliness, but also other aspects that contribute to the sustainability of methods, such as analytical and economic or practical efficiency. HPLC methods are intrinsically not green, due to the high consumption of toxic organic solvents and the resulting generation of large amounts of toxic waste. Fortunately, there are many approaches to overcome the non-green character of HPLC methods. In this article, various modifications of the HPLC methods that increase its environmental friendliness are presented, as well as the various tools used to evaluate environmental friendliness. In addition, the new concept of white analytical chemistry is presented.

Tečna hromatografija pod visokim pritiskom (HPLC) je tehnika od ogromne važnosti u analitici lekova zbog svoje mogućnosti da razdvoji umereno do manje polarna jedinjenja, kao što su aktivne farmaceutske i srodne supstance. Koncept zelene analitičke hemije (GAC) ima za cilj da obezbedi ekološki prihvatljivije i bezbednije metode u pogledu reagenasa, energije i otpada. Jedan od glavnih izazova GAC je da pronađe odgovarajući pristup za procenu "zelenosti" analitičkih metoda. Proširenje GAC, nazvano bela analitička hemija (WAC), uvedeno je kako bi se uzela u obzir ne samo ekološka prihvatljivost, već i drugi aspekti koji doprinose održivosti metoda, kao što su analitička i ekonomska ili praktična efikasnost. HPLC metode suštinski nisu "zelene" zbog obimne potrošnje toksičnih organskih rastvarača i posledičnog stvaranja velikih količina toksičnog otpada. Srećom, postoji mnogo pristupa za prevazilaženje ne-zelene prirode HPLC metoda. U ovom radu su predstavljene različite modifikacije HPLC metode koje povećavaju ekološku prihvatljivost, kao i različiti alati koji se koriste za procenu ekološke prihvatljivosti. Pored toga, predstavljen je novi koncept bele analitičke hemije.