Journal of Chromalography , 616 (1993) 151-154 Biomedical Applications Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam CHROMBIO. 6831 Short Communication Column liquid chromatographic human plasma, saliva and urine C. P. Babalola and 0. 0. Bolaji analysis of quinine in Departmenr of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculry of Pharmacy, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (Nigeria) P. A. F. Dixon Deparrment of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Obqfemi Awolowo University, Iie-e-ife (Nigeria) F. A. Ogunbona” Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculry of Pharmac.v, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (Nigeria) (First received November lOth, 1992; revised manuscript received March 9th, 1993) ABSTRACT A new simple, selective and reproducible high-perfiormance liquid chromatographic method for the determination of quinine in plasma, saliva and urine is described. The ion-pair method was carried out on a reversed-phase C, s column, using perchlorate ion as the counter ion and ultraviolet detection at 254 nm. Quinine was well resolved from its major metabolite, 3-hydroxyquinine, and the internal standard, primaquine. The limit of detection was 10 ng/ml and the recovery was greater than 90% from the three biological fluids. INTRODUCTION Quinine, a quinolinemethanol, is widely used for the treatment of chloroquine-resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum and for the manage- ment of patients presenting with severe or com- plicated malaria. This renewed interest in the use of quinine in malaria chemotherapy makes it nec- essary to elucidate fully the pharmacokinetics of the drug in humans, a situation that requires a * Corresponding author highly sensitive, accurate and specific method for the analysis of the drug in biological fluids. There have been reports [l-5] on the high-per- formance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) anal- ysis of quinine in biological fluids. Most of these are either of low sensitivity [1,3,5] or do not em- ploy any internal standard [1,3]. Some other methods [2,4] that are highly sensitive and specif- ic give a poor recovery of quinine. This paper describes a simple and selective HPLC method for determining quinine in plas- ma, whole blood, urine and saliva. 0378-4347/93/$06.00 c 1993 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. All rights reserved