Quantitative determination of famotidine polymorphs: X-ray powder diffractometric and Raman spectrometric study

X-ray powder diffractometric and Raman spectrometric methods were developed for quantitative measurement of the polymorphic forms of famotidine in their mixtures. This study aims to deduce some useful conclusions regarding quantitative polymorph analysis, which could also be utilized in industrial practice. Both form A and form B of famotidine possess specific X-ray diffraction reflections as well as characteristic Raman vibrational bands, which permits simple determination of the phases in their mixtures. Keeping in mind that multivariate data processing by chemometric approach is thought of nowadays as superior over univariate one, the results of the two evaluation methods were compared by precision, accuracy as well as robustness. It was found that both approaches provide similar results provided analytically useful data regions are properly selected. Overcoming the common problems of quantitative X-ray powder diffractometry and solid state Raman spectrometry both permit accurate quantification of famotidine polymorphs; the latter, however, seems to be more favourable in regular laboratory practice.