Sustainable fabric-phase sorptive extraction membrane characterization and comprehensive greenness assessment for detecting pharmaceutical adulterants in herbal slimming products.

This study presents a sustainable analytical approach centered on the characterization and environmental evaluation of a sol-gel Carbowax 20M-coated fabric-phase sorptive extraction (FPSE) membrane designed for detecting pharmaceutical adulterants-specifically fluoxetine and sibutramine-in herbal slimming products. The membrane was synthesized via in situ sol-gel immobilization and characterized using FTIR and SEM, confirming the formation of a uniform and porous sorbent layer that maintained the structural integrity and permeability of the cellulose fabric substrate. Under optimized conditions, the developed FPSE-HPLC-DAD method achieved limits of detection (LOD) of 4.28 ng mL-1 for fluoxetine and 5.71 ng mL-1 for sibutramine, with recoveries ranging between 94.2% and 112.5% and relative standard deviations (RSD) below 5.2%. The linear ranges extended from 15 to 900 ng mL-1 for fluoxetine and 20-1200 ng mL-1 for sibutramine, demonstrating strong linearity (R2 > 0.99). Beyond analytical validation, the environmental performance of the method was systematically assessed using six recognized greenness and applicability metrics: AGREE (score = 0.63), MoGAPI, AGSA, BAGI (> 60), CACI (62%), and AGREEprep, all confirming high sustainability and practical applicability. These findings highlight that the sol-gel Carbowax 20M coated FPSE membrane provides a low-cost, solvent-efficient, and environmentally responsible platform for the routine screening of undeclared pharmaceutical compounds in complex herbal matrices.