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Volume 5, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 0250-6882
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Abstract

Background

A lack of proper anti-malarial medication use can lead to drug resistance, failed therapy, and even death. It is unclear how widespread the use of fake anti-malarial medications is in India. Better malaria treatment and the execution of regulatory initiatives to improve anti-malarial drug quality necessitate regional research into the quality of available anti-malarial pharmaceuticals. This study aimed to look into the quality of anti-malarial drugs in regions of India where malaria is common. Conclusions about the prevalence of substandard anti-malarial medications in Indian communities can be drawn from the findings.

Methods

Samples of anti-malarial pills were bought from stores in five different Indian areas. One hundred and fifty anti-malarial drug samples were gathered. Using a GPHF minilab lab kit, the quality of the following samples was determined: chloroquine (n=50), artemether lumefantrine (n=50), artesunate sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (n=14), and primaquine (n=31).

Results

This research confirmed that 98% of the tablets disintegrated properly in a minilab disintegration test. As a result, when compared to both the full set of standards and 80% of the samples, 99% of the samples passed the preliminary qualitative TLC test. Only 4% of samples (those with insufficient amounts of the active medicinal component) failed the quantitative HPLC test.

Conclusion

Anti-malarial medicine counterfeiting has been found to be quite uncommon in India compared to other countries. However, further research is needed, such as post-marketing surveillance, to ensure that effective anti-malarials are distributed to the public.

© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Bentham Science Publisher.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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2024-07-10
2025-04-19

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/content/journals/nemj/10.2174/0102506882296927240628080941
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Field Study on the Assessment of Antimalarial Drug Quality Using Minilab Kit in India
NEW Emirates Medical J 5, e02506882296927 (2024); https://doi.org/10.2174/0102506882296927240628080941
/content/journals/nemj/10.2174/0102506882296927240628080941
/content/journals/nemj/10.2174/0102506882296927240628080941
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  • Article Type:     Research Article
Keyword(s): Anti-malarial agents; Antimalarial drug; Counterfeit medicines; Minilab kit; Substandard drugs; Thin-layer chromatography

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