Analysis of Anti-Malarial Drug: Coartem 20/120

Abstract

Malaria is a mosquito –borne infectious disease of humans caused by the bite of a female anopheles mosquito. The disease is prevalent in tropical regions of the world mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America. Anti-malarial medications such as chloroquine, artemisinin, doxycycline, Metakelfin, Coartem 20/120 and other drugs are used to treat malarial infections. In this experiment the antimalarial drug, Coartem 20/120 was analyzed to identify the presence of the main active ingredients. The extraction of such ingredients was made using the appropriate solvents and gave a mixture of two components: Artemether and Lumefantrin which were further separated using the column chromatography. Characterization of such compounds involved the use of melting point determinations as well as infrared spectroscopy and gas chromatographic techniques.