A new sensitive fluorescence probe based on the molecular recognition for the detection of antipsychotics in human urine

Risperidone, olanzapine and aripiprazole have good efficacy in schizophrenia. Monitoring the concentration of antipsychotics in patients is helpful to provide a precise medication administration. Although many detection techniques based on large instruments have been developed, they are expensive and cumbersome, which are not conducive to clinical promotion. In this paper, rose bengal (RB) was firstly used as a low-cost fluorescent probe for the detection of antipsychotic drugs. Under the condition of pH 3.9, there is a strong negative electrostatic potential region in RB, which attracts positively charged antipsychotic drugs. This property allows the halogen atoms and oxygen atoms of RB to act as hydrogen bond donors to molecularly bond with the H atoms of the antipsychotic drugs, forming a non-luminous complex. The fluorescence intensity showed a linear quench relationship with the increasing concentration of risperidone, olanzapine and aripiprazole with low detection limits of 103, 82.0 and 81.0 μg L−1, respectively. This fluorescent method has good selectivity and can be successfully utilized in detecting antipsychotic medications in human urine and pharmaceutical tablets.