NMR for the detection of fraudulent health products

Unlike developing countries, France is not affected by the presence of counterfeit medicines in the official distribution circuit, which is highly regulated and controlled. However, the widespread use of the Internet means that dietary supplements, like certain medicines, are regarded by the public as everyday consumer goods that can be purchased online, which can lead to the presence on French soil of products of poor quality, or even dangerous to health.

There are various analytical methods that can be used to control these preparations, including Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), which remains a powerful tool for structural determination for the analytical chemist, albeit a costly and not very user-friendly one. Using a number of examples relating to food supplements and medicines, we aim to demonstrate that this technique provides both qualitative and quantitative information on the composition of the sample, which, thanks to various recent methodological developments, should make it a rapid screening tool for the quality control of health products as practised in institutional or private control laboratories.

A glossary and table of acronyms appear at the end of the article.