Development of a Thin Layer Chromatography Method for Simultaneous Detection of Chloroquine, Azithromycin and Paracetamol in Counterfeit Tablets Used Against Covid-19

Corona Virus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) is an infectious disease manifested by fever, rate and difficulty in breathing that can lead to death. This pandemic has just paralyzed the world, causing more deaths amongst vulnerable people such as the elderly and people with immune problems. Several therapeutic agents are being tested for the treatment of Covid-19. The combination of Chloroquine, Azithromycin and Paracetamol is identified as a promising therapeutic candidate for Covid-19. To ensure the success of this therapy, medicines of high quality play a key role. Unfortunately, we are not totally spared from trafficking of poor quality pharmaceutical products. As a contribution to try solving this challenge, a convenient, rapid and simple Thin Layer Chromatography method (TLC), which permits the simultaneous determination of Chloroquine, Azithromycin and paracetamol has been developed. The Chromatographic separation was achieved on 60 F silica gel plate using a mixture of methanol-25% ammonia (100:1.5, v/v). Iodine vapor and ultraviolet light at 254 nm were used for the visualization of the spots. The developed method was successfully applied to determine Chloroquine in 23 samples supposed to contain Chloroquine marketed in DRC. The results showed that 50% of the samples analyzed were non-compliant and should probably contain paracetamol instead of Chloroquine. It suggested that the optimized method could be used for routine quality assessment of Chloroquine, Azithromycin or Paracetamol in pharmaceutical preparations. Since counterfeiting of medicines continues to be a real problem in developing countries as demonstrated by this result, the development of simple and convenient analytical method that allowed the rapid analysis of medicines used in Covid-19 therapy is more than urgent.