Pharmacokinetics of primaquine in rhesus monkeys.

A sensitive and specific spectrophotometric method for primaquine estimation has been developed and used to study the plasma kinetics of primaquine in Rhesus monkeys. It was observed that the drug completely disappeared from the plasma in 24 hours after a single oral dose. Its concentration in the plasma reached a peak at 2 hours of administration. The mean absorption and elimination half-lives were 0.36 +/- 0.08 and 3.44 +/- 0.37 hours respectively.