Investigation of chemical impurities in formulations, phytotherapics and polyvitaminic medicines by k0-instrumental neutron activation analysis

In this work, comparative k0-Instrumental Neutron-Activation Analysis was performed by CDTN/CNEN/Brazil and SCK.CEN/Belgium in order to investigate the elemental concentration in samples of the same industrialised and manipulated medicine, a phytotherapic and a polyvitaminic, commonly commercialised in Brazil. The preliminary results from both Institutes are in very good agreement. Any serious contamination with possible risks to human health were found in the medicines compared with the expected values. In the case of polyvitaminic, some impurities, unexpected elements, such as La, Ti and Sm, were found in very low concentration. This first assessment confirmed the effectiveness of the k0-method in analysing such matrices.