Ionizing radiation and its effects on pharmaceuticals

Radiation is used for different purposes such as sterilization, imaging, analysis and security. Sterilization, one of the the using area of radiation, is important issue for industries. The disadvantages of heat and chemical sterilization on medicines, medical devices and foodstuffs have made important the use of radiation sterilization. Officinal sterilization method are available (25 kGy gamma-rays) in the pharmacopeias. Other ionizing radiations are getting popular because of their advantages and changing conditions on gamma-sterilization. In this article, the results of different types of ionizing radiation exposure in different doses and several analytical methods used to detect differences have been evaluated.