Chair of Chemistry, Physics and Astronomy publishes scholarly article with two students

Dr. Sayo Fakayode, chair of Georgia College & State University’s Department of Chemistry, Physics and Astronomy, is pleased to announce the publication of a study he conducted with four other scientists, including two of his research students.

The new publication is called “Rapid Screening and Multicomponent Quantifications of Active Components of Oral Syrup Over-the-Counter Medications by Raman and UV-visible Spectroscopy and Multivariate Regression Analysis.”

“This article listed two of my chemistry research scholars, Brinkley Bolton and Bailey Dassow, as co-authors,” Fakayode said. “Last month, the same students presented at the American Chemical Society (ACS), a national research meeting in San Francisco, California.” 

"When undergraduates present their finding at national conferences and co-author studies in high-impact journals, such as “Spectrochemical Acta Part A. Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy,” Fakayode said,  “It’s a testament to the quality of research we are doing at Georgia College.”

“This experience also opens the doors of opportunity for our students, promoting their professional development and personal growth,” he said.

Other co-authors were Kairy Galvez and Harmeet Chohan, undergraduate students who studied under Fakayode at the University of Arkansas, Fort Smith. Galvez now attends a Physician Assistant school, and Chohan is currently in a Ph.D. program at Purdue University.

The group’s goal was to develop portable, low-cost, accurate rapid screening to evaluate the integrity of Oral Syrup Over-the-Counter Medications using simple Raman and a UV-visible spectrometer.  

The study provides an example of the benefits of using Raman and UV-visible spectral profiling and chemometric approaches, Fakayode said. These include principal component and regression analysis for examination of oral syrups and over-the-counter medications. It also provides a multicomponent count of active ingredients without using sample extraction.  

In addition, Fakayode said the method can be easily adapted and scaled for online detection analysis used in the drug manufacturing industry—both in-lab and field analysis—and for the quality control of syrups and over-the-counter medications regulated by agencies and quality control officers. 

“Over-the-counter medications are frequently recommended as a first-line treatment for common ailments, diseases and illnesses,” Fakayode said. “Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provides strict guidelines to drug manufacturers of these products, the risk of counterfeiting is a global issue.”

“Drug counterfeiting can lead to several adverse effects and health issues,” he said. “Counterfeiting also infringes on intellectual property rights, which can lead to harmful financial implications for drug manufacturers, thereby causing a snowball effect on international trade and transactions.”

You can find the publication at https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1hoeV4xB1qiJ3u.

In the photo, left to right, are Dr. Sayo Fakayode, Brinkley Bolton, Bailey Dassow and chemistry research scholar Carson Kleider at the ACS conference in August in San Francisco, California.