Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)In this work, it was used imaging spectroscopy and chemometric tools for the development and analysis of paracetamol and excipients in pharmaceutical formulations. It was also built concentration maps to study the distribution of the drug in the tablets surface. Multivariate models based on PLS regression were developed for paracetamol and excipients concentrations prediction. For the construction of the models it was used 31 samples in the tablet form containing the active principle in a concentration range of 30.0-90.0% (w/w) and errors below to 5% were obtained for validation samples. Finally, the study of the distribution in the drug was performed through the distribution maps of concentration of active principle and excipients. The analysis of maps showed the complementarity between the active principle and excipients in the tablets. The region with a high concentration of a constituent must have, necessarily, absence or low concentration of the other one. Thus, an alternative method for the paracetamol drug quality monitoring is presented. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.100241699167171Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)SAE-UnicampFundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)FAPESP [2006/07309-3]