Pharmacokinetic Evaluation of Quinine in Tablet Formulation from Herbal Extract

The rationale of this project work is to formulate oral herbal tablets of Cinchona officinalis extract containing quinine and also with pure synthetic quinine, further to determine the pharmacokinetic profile for both and compare. The concentration of quinine in the extract was estimated by HPTLC with comparison to synthetic form. Tablets were prepared from both extract and synthetic form through direct compression technique by varying the process and formulation parameters. The pre and post compression parameters were evaluated for the formulated batches. The pharmacokinetic studies were conducted in rabbit models of either sex. The pharmacokinetic profile of the extract formulation was compared with the pharmacokinetic profile of the pure quinine formulation. The tablets formulated possessed good pre and post compressional properties. The invitro release studies showed that it followed first order release kinetics. Even though there was no significant differences with ‘p’ value between the pharmacokinetic data obtained for pure and extract quinine tablets, the absorption was slightly increased in case of extract. Therefore for the predicted dose is a very high amount of the extract containing Quinine needed to be given to attain the required therapeutic range.