Chemical Imagnig: An essential mechanism to assess pharmaceutical quality (Part II)

This article is intended to report on the contribution of chemical imaging to the professions of pharmacy, bio-pharmacy or of cosmetics, whether during the phase of the search for an active substance (experimental pharmacology), in development of a formulation or of quality control, or as an additional tool in resolution of problems of quality in industrial manufacture. It has been written for a reader who is little familiar with this method in order to provide him/her with the methodological bases and important points to monitor in order to draw the best possible results from it. Chemical imaging to date is the only tool which enables to visualise without labelling the spatial configuration of chemical (or biochemical) species in a sample. It is an essential added value in comparison to optical microscopy.