The ecological impact of liquid chromatographic methods reported for bioanalysis of COVID-19 drug, hydroxychloroquine: Insights on greenness assessment

Hydroxychloroquine is a drug that has been widely used during the early stages of COVID-19 pandemic. Different liquid chromatographic methods have been reported for the analysis of hydroxychloroquine in various biological matrices such as human plasma, serum, whole blood, oral fluid, rat plasma and tissues. In this comparative study, the most popular tools used for assessing the greenness profile: National Environmental Methods Index (NEMI), Eco-Scale Assessment (ESA), Green Analytical Procedure Index (GAPI) and Analytical Greenness metric (AGREE) were utilized to evaluate the ecological impact of eighteen liquid chromatographic methods developed for the bioanalysis of COVID-19 drug; hydroxychloroquine. NEMI is the simplest tool for evaluating the greenness profile of developed methods, but it is the least informative approach as all the reported methods had the same NEMI pictograms. On the other hand, GAPI is a dependable tool providing a complete picture about the method greenness starting from sampling until the final determination. ESA and AGREE tools are digitally presented and more easily applied. Therefore, their utilization for greenness assessment is highly recommended. Selection of the highest eco-friendly analytical procedure is of a paramount importance for protecting human health and the environment. Considering the greenness of the analytical procedures is highly recommended before proceeding to routine use in order to minimize the chemical hazards to the environment. The most eco-friendly analytical procedures for the analysis of hydroxychloroquine in biological samples according to ESA, GAPI and AGREE tools will be highlighted and discussed.