Current Applications of Green Sample Preparation in Pharmaceutical Analysis

In pharmaceutical analysis, sample preparation is undoubtedly the most challenging and demanding step of the whole analytical procedure. Moreover, due to the increased consumption of hazardous chemicals, this step can also be characterized as highly polluting and environmentally harmful. In the last few years, in order to overcome these limitations and fulfill the principles of Green Analytical Chemistry, various green extraction techniques have been developed. Typical examples of novel environmentally friendly extraction techniques that are used in pharmaceutical analysis involve solid-phase microextraction, liquid-phase microextraction, stir bar sorptive extraction, pipette-tip solid-phase extraction, magnetic solid-phase extraction, dispersive solid-phase extraction, and fabric phase sorptive extraction. At the same time, a plethora of novel sorbents, including carbon-based materials, molecularly imprinted polymers, sol–gel materials, metal–organic frameworks, and covalent–organic frameworks, have been developed and used in sample preparation. In this chapter, we present the current applications of green sample preparation in pharmaceutical analysis. Emphasis will be given to novel sorbents and novel miniaturized extraction techniques and microextraction techniques employed for the determination of pharmaceuticals in complex matrices.