Colour measurement of liquid biopharmaceutical products with the UltraScan VIS spectrophotometer

In the pharmaceutical industry, accurate determination of the color of transparent liquid products is critical in development and quality management. Accurate color measurement in transmission according to CIE and ASTM standards is essential to qualify the color of liquid APIs, injectables and other liquid products according to international pharmaceutical guidelines. In particular, the exact assignment of internationally defined color numbers must be guaranteed even for the smallest sample quantities. HunterLab’s color measurement offers the perfect solution to meet these requirements and provides the pharmaceutical industry with reliable, accurate color values and color numbers – even with minimal sample quantities.

The task

In addition to the exact measurement of the CIE L*a*b* color values, the reliable determination of various color numbers, such as the EP color number EP 2.2.2, the USP color number, the Apha color number or the determination of the Haze value in the analysis of pharmaceutical liquids is also required. When measuring color in transmission, often only very small quantities of the product are available.

With the UltraScan VIS spectrophotometer, transparent liquid pharmaceutical products can be precisely measured in transmission. In the EasyMatch QC software, all color numbers commonly used in the pharmaceutical industry can be calculated and displayed immediately in addition to the standard color scales (see box). If you only want to use very small sample quantities, HunterLab offers various holders and cuvettes that can be used to measure quantities from approx. 300 µl. The layer thickness of 1.0 cm is retained for reliable measurement.

The accessories

The following cuvettes with matching holder:

• Rectangular cells with layer thicknesses from 2 mm to 50 mm
• Macro cuvettes (from 2.5 ml)
• Semi-microcuvettes (from 0.6 ml)
• Ultra-microcuvettes (from 300 µl)