The key difference between adulteration and substitution is that adulteration is the act of reducing the quality, whereas substitution is the act of replacing a substance.
Adulterants and substitutes are common practices in synthesis reactions. An adulterant is an agent that can cause the debasement of an article intentionally for a particular purpose. Sometimes, this can accidentally happen due to the lack of knowledge in identification and proper collection. On the other hand, substitution is a replacement reaction.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Adulteration
3. What is Substitution
4. Adulteration vs Substitution in Tabular Form
5. Summary – Adulteration vs Substitution
What is Adulteration?
Adulteration is the act of reducing the quality of a substance by adding another substance. This addition of the other substance can be either intentional or unintentional. Therefore, there are two types of adulteration, they are:
- Direct or intentional adulteration
- Indirect or unintentional or accidental adulteration
In relation to the pharmaceutical industry, intentional adulteration is done in order to get commercial benefits, due to high demand, etc. However, unintentional adulteration can occur due to a lack of knowledge, similarity in color and morphology of substances, and careless collection.
Figure 01: Adulteration of Arrowroot with Rice Starch (Under a Microscope)
Adulteration can be achieved by the addition of standard adulterants, use of superficially similar inferior substances, use of artificially manufactured substances, use of exhausted substances, use of synthetic chemicals that can enhance the original characteristics, etc.
What is Substitution?
Substitution is the act of replacement. In the field of the pharmaceutical industry, substitution is important when there is a non-availability of drugs, uncertain identity of drugs, cost of drugs, geographical distribution of drugs, adverse reaction of drugs, and seasonal availability of drugs.
There are different types of substitutions, such as substitution with a totally different substance, substitution with the chemical species in the same category, use of substances from different categories having common properties, similarity in action, etc. However, the most important fact about substitution is considering the pharmacological activity rather than the morphology or phytoconstituents.
What is the Difference Between Adulteration and Substitution?
Adulteration and substitution are important terms, mainly in drug development and pharmaceutical chemistry. The key difference between adulteration and substitution is that adulteration is the act of reducing the quality, whereas substitution is the act of replacing a substance. Besides, adulteration can be intentional or unintentional whereas substitution is intentional. Moreover, adulteration is used to increase the product size and decrease the cost, while substitution is used due to the non-availability of a particular substance, high demand, high cost, etc.
Adulteration can be achieved by the addition of standard adulterants, use of superficially similar inferior substances, use of artificially manufactured substances, use of exhausted substances, use of synthetic chemicals that can enhance the original characteristics, etc. On the other hand, substitution can be achieved by substitution with a totally different substance, substitution with the chemical species in the same category, use of substances from different categories having common properties, similarity in action, etc.
The below infographic presents the differences between adulteration and substitution in tabular form for side-by-side comparison.
Summary – Adulteration vs Substitution
Adulteration and substitution are important terms, mainly in drug development and pharmaceutical chemistry. The key difference between adulteration and substitution is that adulteration is the act of reducing the quality, whereas substitution is the act of replacing a substance. While adulteration is used to increase the product size and decrease the cost, substitution is used due to reasons like the non-availability of a particular substance, high demand, and high cost.
Reference:
1. Puneshwar, Keshari. “Controversy, Adulteration and Substitution.” Share and Discover Knowledge on SlideShare.
Image Courtesy:
1. “How the microscope reveals adulteration b10154140 027 tif ks65hd45w” By Philip, James Charles, 1873-1941 (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Colorful pills in a bowl” By Karolina / Kaboompics (CC0) via Raw Pixel