Determination of bisphosphonate active pharmaceutical ingredients in pharmaceuticals and biological materials: An updated review

Although almost 60 years have passed since their first application, bisphosphonates are still in use as medicine against osteoporosis. Due to their chemical structures and properties, these compounds have attracted the attention of many scientists. From an analytical point of view, various analytical methods have been published in the last decade for the determination of these drugs involving separation techniques (HPLC, GC, CE), electro-chemical, sensors, spectrophotometry, IR, etc.The present article is a continuation of the 2008 review article of the authors on the analysis of bisphosph-onates (C.K. Zacharis, P.D. Tzanavaras, JPBA 48 (2008) 483-496) and it focuses on bioanalytical and pharma-ceutical QC applications on the analysis of this class of pharmaceutically active compounds presenting a critical discussion on advantages/disadvantages, figures of merit and analytical features of techniques and methods on this topic.