Comparative in vitro assessment of the antiplasmodial activity of quinine – zinc complex and quinine sulphate

Incessant malaria endemicity in the tropics and subtropical regions and the recent work done on the synthesis of metal drug complexes of antimalarial drugs and the evaluation of their antimalarial activities in vitro, has led to the development of this study. Quinine-Zinc complex (QZ) was synthesized using a modification of Singla and Wadhwa method. Melting point determination, TLC analysis, infra red, ultra violet, atomic absorption spectroscopy and mole ratio determination were all carried out on the complex synthesized. Direct measurement of the antimalarial activity of the potential new drug (QZ) against parasite growth in vitro was used to comparatively ascertain the antimalarial activity of QZ relative to Quinine sulphate (QS). Measurement of antimalarial activity was carried out based on the inhibition of parasite growth with respect to inhibition of schizont formation in freshly collected infected blood samples from patients. The results showed that QZ complex was formed and its antimalarial activity was three times that of QS alone. This study suggests that the quinine-zinc complex could have a better therapeutic activity than quinine.