Electrocatalytic and Analytical Response of Cobalt Phthalocyanine Modified Carbon Paste Electrodes Towards Antimalarial Endoperoxide Artemisinin

Abstract

Abstract A cobalt phthalocyanine modified carbon paste electrode was constructed for the analysis of artemisinin in Artemisia annua plant. Artemisinin, a sesquiterpene endoperoxide, is a novel, important antimalarial drug and is used in the therapy against Plasmodium falciparum. The developed cobalt phthalocyanine modified electrode exhibited a significant electrocatalytic activity in presence of artemisinin when using cyclic and differential pulse voltammetry. Under optimized conditions in phosphate buffer of pH 7 a well defined voltammetric peak appeared at about −500 mV vs. Ag/AgCl. The differential pulse voltammetric peak current of artemisinin was increased linearly with the concentration range of 2.1×10 −5 to 5.3×10 −4 M ( R =0.9997). The limit of detection ( LOD ) was found to be 6.5×10 −6 M. The modified electrode was successfully tested for detecting artemisinin in complex plant materials.