Continuous determination of chloroquine in plasma by laser-induced photochemical reaction and fluorescence

A flow injection fluorimetric method is proposed for the determination of c hloroquine based on the photochemical derivatisation in an alkaline medium of the analyte and fluorescence generation after irradiation with a pulsed Nd:YAG laser operated at 355 nm. Chemical, hydrodynamic and laser variables were studied in order to obtain the best conditions for quantification. A linear range from 25 to 600 mug/L was achieved, with a correlation coeffici ent of 0.997 (n = 8), an RSD of 4.3% (n = 11) and a detection limit of 8 mu g/L (3 sigma). The sample throughput was 10 h(-1.) The method was successfu lly applied to the determination of chloroquine in human plasma. The increa se of sensitivity with respect to the method based on monitoring the intrin sic fluorescence of chloroquine itself was 1.7 times.