Bambang Kuswandi, Firlie I. R. Abdillah, Mochammad Amrun Hidayat, Xia Sun, Surjani Wonorahardjo
The detection of paracetamol content in pharmaceutical products like tablets, using a simple and rapid tool, will help pharmacy practitioners and improve the quality of pharmaceutical preparations. Herein, an analytical tool has been developed using a paper channel coated with FeCl3 and K3[Fe(CN)6] reagents that tested as a simple and rapid approach for monitoring paracetamol content in tablet formulations. The detection principle is based on a reaction between the reagents and paracetamol, where a complex will be developed in the paper channel, turning the color from green to Prussian blue, a color that can easily be detected with the naked eye. The phenomenon can be used to develop a distance-based paper sensor, with the resulting color seen as a colored band produced on the paper channel. The length of the color change revealed in the band is linearly proportional to the concentration of paracetamol in the samples. The sensor has a linear range of 62.5–1000 mg/L paracetamol, with a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.991. The detection limit of the sensor was 52.413 mg/L, whereas the quantification limit was 158.827 mg/L. The results of paracetamol detection in tablets showed good agreement with the UV-Vis spectrophotometric approach. The sensor can be used as an alternative approach for paracetamol detection in the field. Due to the sensor being rapid, easy to fabricate and operate, and not requiring laboratory instruments. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to the Institute of Chemistry, Slovak Academy of Sciences 2026.
Chemo and Biosensors Group, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Jember, Jl. Kalimantan 37 Kampus Tegal Boto, East Java, Jember, Indonesia; School of Agricultural Engineering and Food Science, Shandong University of Technology, No. 266 Xincun Xilu, Shandong, Zibo, 255049, China; Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, State University of Malang, Jl. Jalan Semarang 5, East Java, Malang, Indonesia
