A Mixed-Micelle Capillary Electrophoresis Method for Fast Quality Screening of Antimalarial Drugs

Substandard and falsified antimalarial medicines remain a major barrier to effective malaria treatment, particularly in resource-limited settings where accessible and reliable analytical tools are essential for medicine-quality screening. To support this need, we developed a mixed-micelle micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) method for the simultaneous analysis of five antimalarial drugs. The optimized background electrolyte consisted of 10 mM borate buffer, 55 mM lithium dodecyl sulfate (LiDS), 10 mM polyoxyethylene (23) lauryl ether (Brij-35), and 30% acetonitrile at pH 8. Under these conditions, all analytes were baseline-resolved within a total analysis time of less than 7 min, showing good peak symmetry and repeatable separation. The method also consistently resolved minor impurity peaks present in quinine and primaquine standards, demonstrating its capability to detect additional components relevant to quality surveillance. Method validation demonstrated adequate selectivity, repeatability, robustness, linearity, and sensitivity. The method was successfully applied to commercial antimalarial medicine samples, demonstrating its potentiality for rapid quality screening of pharmaceutical formulations. Overall, the mixed-micelle MEKC approach offers a rapid, reliable, and affordable tool for the simultaneous screening of antimalarial medicines, with strong potential for use in resource-limited settings.