Analysis of the antimalarial drug halofantrine and its major metabolite N-desbutylhalofantrine in human plasma by high performance liquid chromatography

The determination of halofantrine and its major metabolite N-desbutylhalofantrine in human plasma by reversed phase high-pressure liquid chromatography is described. The method involves protein precipitation of plasma samples by acetonitrile followed by basification with sodium hydroxide and subsequent liquid–liquid extraction using hexane-diethyl ether (1:1, v/v). The chromatographic separation was carried out on a C-18 column with a mobile phase consisting of methanol/0.05 M KH2PO4 (78:22, v/v) containing 55 mM perchloric acid. Chlorprothixen was used as internal standard. The relative standard deviations of intraday and interday precision for both compounds were less than 7%, the relative standard deviation of the accuracy did not exceed 7.1% at concentrations of 50 and 300 ng/ml. This method is simple, rapid, sensitive and cost effective and was applied to the determination of the pharmacokinetics of halofantrine and N-desbutylhalofantrine in two healthy male volunteers after an oral administration of 500 mg halofantrine. Moreover, the influence of the frequently consumed kolanut on the pharmacokinetics of halofantrine was investigated.