Recent research on analytical methods of analysis of artesunate: A review

Artesunate (active metabolite dihydroartemisinin) and artesunate-based combination therapy (ACT) is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for the treatment of severe and multidrug resistant malaria. In the pharmaceutical industry, analytical method development gives important information of drugs potency, bioavailability and its stability. Analytical method development is required for assuring the quality of product. So far, around thirty three analytical methods have been reported for various studies on analysis of artesunate in bulk, pharmaceutical formulations and biological fluids. This review highlights different analytical methods such as chromatography, spectroscopy and hyphenated techniques of artesunate. These techniques are either explored for the quantification, detection of metabolite and also for stability-studies of the artesunate. The present studies revealed that HPLC techniques along with spectroscopic have been most widely explored for the analysis. The brief review may provide information to the researchers who are working in the area of analytical research of artesunate.