Development of graphical user interface (GUI) for database building and for falsification applications

Inside a research unit, there are several kind of information which are gathered in a continuous flow from operators. It is important to centralize all of the information not to lose any interesting result. Because of the cost and/or the non-applicability of commercial database software, it is interesting to build its own one. Indeed, in the case of spectroscopic data, the use of a market database software is not user-friendly because, stored data cannot be directly manipulated in multivariate analyses applications.
The database under development actually contains the data of various pharmaceutical samples (genuine and falsified) obtained on several spectroscopic devices. For this application, a Matlab® graphical user interface (GUI) is being developed. It provides the access to spectroscopic data for any operator and allows the automatic implementation of new instruments and/or new formulation groups. Moreover, in case of falsification suspicion, another GUI has been developed to provide qualitative information regarding the composition of the medicines.
It is an interesting tool because it provides an instantaneously visual comparison between reference database and the unknown spectrum. Moreover, statistical tools, as Hit Quality Index or correlation coefficient, can provide a numerical result to quantify the match between spectra.
In the future, results from other kind of techniques (e.g. HPLC, dissolution curves, photos) will be added to centralize samples information.