title: Quali-quantitative analysis of best selling drugs from pharmacy, street market and traditional herbal medicine: a pilot study of market surveillance in Senegal.
abstract: A pilot study of market surveillance in Senegal has been performed analyzing best selling drugs from an official pharmacy and a street market in two principal cities of Senegal and some traditional preparations from herbal medicine from the same market. A simple and rapid gas chromatography method with mass spectrometry detection has been applied after a liquid-liquid extraction of pharmaceutical products and traditional preparations at acidic, neutral and basic pH with chloroform-isopropanol (9:1, v/v). The assay was validated in the range from 10mg to 250 mg/g powder preparations with good determination coefficients (r(2)≥ 0.99) for the calibration curves. At three concentrations spanning the linear dynamic ranges of the calibration curves, mean recoveries of substances under investigation were always higher than 90% and intra-assay and inter-assay precision and accuracy were always better than 15%. The four best selling drugs purchased from a Dakar local pharmacy exactly contained the amount of active principles reported in the respective labels while the best selling drugs freely purchased from Kaolack market contained an amount of active ingredients lower than that declared on the label. No pharmacological active compound, but salicylic acid was found in one of the traditional herbal preparations. This pilot study showed that whereas official drugs sold in pharmacies at prices accessible for a very few portion of the population contained the amount of active principles as reported in the labels, those from street market bought by the majority of population contained an amount of active ingredients lower than that declared on the label and finally traditional herbal preparations seldom contain pharmacological active principles.
authors.affiliation: Drug Abuse and Doping Unit, Department of Therapeutic Research and Medicines Evaluation, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Roma 00161, Italy. Electronic address: simona.pichini@iss.it.
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pichini
authors.affiliation: Drug Abuse and Doping Unit, Department of Therapeutic Research and Medicines Evaluation, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Roma 00161, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria Concetta
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Rotolo
authors.affiliation: L'Amaca Onlus, Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Pasquale
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bellotti
authors.affiliation: Drug Abuse and Doping Unit, Department of Therapeutic Research and Medicines Evaluation, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Roma 00161, Italy.
authors.forename: Adele
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Minutillo
authors.affiliation: Drug Abuse and Doping Unit, Department of Therapeutic Research and Medicines Evaluation, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Roma 00161, Italy.
authors.forename: Luisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mastrobattista
authors.affiliation: Drug Abuse and Doping Unit, Department of Therapeutic Research and Medicines Evaluation, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Roma 00161, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pacifici
mesh_terms: D058110:Counterfeit Drugs / Q000032:analysis*; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D029001:Herbal Medicine / Q000592:standards; D013287:Illicit Drugs / Q000032:analysis; D016488:Medicine, African Traditional / Q000592:standards; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000032:analysis; D010604:Pharmacy / Q000592:standards; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012675:Senegal / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D058110:Counterfeit Drugs; D013287:Illicit Drugs; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations
keywords: Drugs market surveillance; Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry; Senegal; Traditional herbal medicine