Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Antimalarial Drugs and their Metabolites in Body Fluids

This review of methods for determining antimalarial drugs in biological fluids has focused on the various analytical techniques for the assay of chloroquine, quinine, amodiaquine, mefloquine, proguanil, pyrimethamine, sulphadoxine, primaquine and some of their metabolites. The methods for determining antimalarial and their metabolites in biological samples have changed rapidly during the last eight to ten years with the increased use of chromatographic techniques. Chloroquine is still the most used antimalarial drug, and various methods of different complexity exist for the determination of chloroquine and its metabolites in biological fluids. The pharmacokinetics of chloroquine and other antimalarial have been updated using these new methods. The various analytical techniques have been discussed, from simple colorimetric methods of intermediate selectivity and sensitivity to highly sophisticated, selective and sensitive chromatographic methods applied in a modern analytical laboratory.