Uses of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Technique in Pharmaceutical Analysis: A Review

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a physical phenomenon in which nuclei in a magnetic field absorb and re-emit electromagnetic radiation. Many scientific techniques exploit NMR phenomena to study molecular physics, crystals, and non-crystalline materials through nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. NMR phenomena are also utilized in low-field NMR, NMR spectroscopy and MRI in the Earth's magnetic field (referred to as Earth's field NMR), and in several types of magnetometers. Modern NMR spectroscopy has been emphasizing the application in biomolecular systems and plays an important role in structural biology. NMR spectroscopy is very important to identify a drug or an excipient, evaluate the level of impurities (and to elucidate the structure), observe the course of a decomposition, to evaluate residual solvents, determine the isomeric composition, i.e. the ratio of diastereomers and the enantiomeric excess by means of chiral additive, assess a single drug or drug composition, characterize a polymer mostly being a mixture and used as excipients, identify counter ions (if of organic origin and having protons), characterize an entire formulation, e.g. a tablet. Fundamentals of quantitative NMR spectroscopy NMR spectroscopy can be considered as a primary ratio method of measurement being characterized by the fact that the ratio of substances can be determined directly from the physical context of the measurement without referencing to another substance. NMR has become one of the most powerful and versatile spectroscopic techniques for the analysis of biomacromolecules, allowing characterization of biomacromolecules and their complexes up to 100 kDa. Together with X-ray crystallography.