Saliva secretion of chloroquine in man.

The presence of chloroquine in saliva from seven healthy volunteers for 21 days after a single 600 mg oral dose of the drug was established by chromatographic and spectroscopic methods. The results showed the drug to be rapidly absorbed with a tmax in saliva of 3.9 +/- 1.6 h. A long elimination half-life of 7-20 days, calculated from the saliva concentration-time profile, is in agreement with values previously reported for the drug using plasma level data. In three of the volunteers from whom simultaneous blood samples were obtained, the mean Cs/Cp value was 1.20 +/- 0.27. It is suggested that saliva level determination may be used in evaluating patient compliance, therapeutic drug monitoring and pharmacokinetic parameters of chloroquine.