Scientific Research in School Volume 3 Issue 1 2021
Synthesis of Pyrimethamine Jess Samuelson Barker College Pyrimethamine, introduced in 1952, is an essential medicine due to its anti-malarial, lifesaving properties. However, this essential medicine is now harder to buy due to Turing Pharmaceuticals price increase of the essential medicine, raising the price by 5000% overnight, raising concerns surrounding the ethics of big pharma companies such as Turing. In 2016, Sydney Grammar School was able to successfully synthesise pyrimethamine, cheaply, accessibly and within a high school laboratory, bringing to light the unethical price for pyrimethamine. This report will outline Sydney Grammar’s method to successfully replicate and produce a comparable yield to Sydney Grammar to prove the reliability, accessibility, and the inexpensive nature of their method. The compound itself was analysed at the University of Sydney using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) to determine the purity and structure of the compound made. After completing the first two parts of the Sydney Grammar method, a greater yield and similar purity was found to that of Sydney Grammar, further emphasising the reliability of their method. Literature Review Malaria is a protozoan parasitic disease transmitted by the female Anopheles mosquito and is found in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world (Bloland & WHO, 2001) (Figure 1). According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), infection rate is going down, from
238 million new infections in 2000 and 736 000 deaths (WHO, 2020) to 229 million new infections and 409 000 deaths in 2019 (WHO, 2020). There are five different strains of malaria, Plasmodium falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale, P. malariae and P. knowlesi, with P.falciparum being responsible for 90% of infections (Ashley and Phyo, 2018).
Figure 1: Global map of the geographical distribution of Malaria (Source: WHO, 2020, pg19)
Science Extension Journal • 135
