Classification of the Biopolymer Sodium Pentosan Polysulfate by Infrared Spectroscopy

Sodium pentosan polysulfate (NaPPS) is a glycosaminoglycan that is of increasing interest due to its medical properties. It has been investigated for the treatment of osteoarthritis, HIV and Prion based diseases. This work describes an investigation into the application of infrared spectroscopy (IR) for the differentiation between sources of NaPPS. Multivariate techniques such as principle components analysis were applied to detect differences between the IR and near IR (NIR) spectra and to classify the biopolymers based on their manufacturer. This study compared two samples of NaPPS from different manufacturers. Principle components analysis (PCA) together with soft independent modeling of class analogies (SIMCA) was used to successfully classify the different samples. Clear differentiation between all batches was achieved using PCA and class distances using first derivative spectra (500–1800 cm−1).