Fluorescence in Pharmaceutics and Cosmetics

Abstract

Fluorescence is a visually appealing phenomenon that revolutionized many fields of science and technology. The abilities to see biological processes as they occur, monitor drug delivery and action, stain specific cells, and highlight microscopic structures are some of the applications of fluorescence that are changing our daily lives. This chapter discusses the use of the fluorescence phenomenon in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics focusing on the toxicology and the use of task-specific fluorescent materials and development of sensitive and selective analytical and imaging methods. Noninvasive bioimaging using endogenous fluorophores as probes, emerging techniques related to fluorescence, and a brief description of selected fundamental concepts in photoscience are provided for completeness.