Preliminary study on qualitative and quantitative detection of norfloxacin based on terahertz spectroscopy

Abstract

Norfloxacin is a kind of quinolone bactericide which is widely used in food industry, livestock feed and medicine area. At present, how to develop a rapid, convenient and accurate technique for qualitative and quantitative detection of norfloxacin is still a challenge. In this study, Terahertz Time-domain Spectroscopy technology (THz-TDS) was used to explore qualitative and quantitative analysis of norfloxacin. Forty-five norfloxacin samples with different levels were prepared. The pure norfloxacin powder was mixed with polyethylene (PE) powder together and made into tablets by tablet-making machine. The minimum detection concentration was 10% and the maximum detection concentration evaluated in the paper was 90%. Then, terahertz (THz) spectra of each sample were measured on K15 THz-TDS equipment. The multiple linear regressions and the partial least squares regression algorithms were used to establish a model to make quantitative analysis. From the results, two typical fingerprint peaks of norfloxacin in terahertz band were observed at 0.944 THz and 1.206 THz, and the correlation coefficient and the root mean square error of the established model reached 0.9908 and 0.0481, respectively, which showed that the model performed well for the prediction. This preliminary study indicates that THz spectroscopy has great potential for future screening applications to detect the presence of norfloxacin residues in food, livestock feed and medicine industries. Keywords: Terahertz spectroscopy, norfloxacin, qualitative and quantitative detection, model, correlation coefficient DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20171005.2962 Citation: Long Y, Li B. Preliminary study on qualitative and quantitative detection of norfloxacin based on terahertz spectroscopy. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2017; 10(5): 262–268.