Abstract:
HPLC analysis of anti-malaria agent, chloroquine (CQ) in blood and tissues with a simple HCl back extraction method was
applied to three forensic autopsy cases in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. CQ concentrations in femoral vein blood were 8.5, 48.4 and
43.8 mg/ml in three cases, respectively, which were high enough to attribute the cause of deaths to an acute CQ poisoning. There
were great site dependent variations in blood CQ levels. The right heart blood samples were very high, which may be explained
by incomplete distribution of the drug before death or postmortem diffusion from liver and its surrounding blood, as high CQ
levels were remarkable in the liver. Suicidal and accidental CQ poisonings are very common and CQ is a very important
chemical in the field of forensic toxicology in Tanzania.
