Extraction, identification and detection of synthetic cannabinoids found pre-ban in herbal products in Victoria, Australia

Simultaneous determination of 10 new psychoactive piperazine derivatives in urine using ultrasound-assisted low-density solvent dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction combined with gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

With the rapid development of synthetic drugs, novel piperazine derivatives, as an increasingly important class of new psychoactive substances (NPS), have attracted global attention owing to their increasing demand in the illicit drug market. In this study, ten piperazine derivatives were analyzed in urine samples after pre-treatment with ultrasound-assisted low-density solvent dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (UA-LDS-DLLME) combined with gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). This simple approach involved the use of urine samples (1 mL) adjusted to pH 12, which was added to 100 µL of n-hexane and subjected to ultrasonication for 3 min to completely disperse the sample in the n-hexane solution. The resulting turbid suspension was centrifuged at 10,000 rpm for 3 min, and the supernatant was extracted and analyzed using GC-MS/MS. Under the optimized conditions presented in this study, the linear relationship between the analytes was good within 10-1500 ng/mL, and the correlation coefficient (r) was between .9914 and .9983. The limit of detection (LOD) was 0.3-2 ng/mL (S/N = 3), and the lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) was 10 ng/mL (S/N = 10) with the recovery of the analytes of interest from the spiked samples being 76.3%-93.3%. This method has been used to analyze real-world samples; our study shows that the UA-LDS-DLLME approach can be used for rapid analysis while consuming minimal solvent for the simultaneous determination of a range of analytes. This method has the potential for use in clinical analyses and forensic toxicology.

GC-MS analysis of underivatised new psychoactive substances in whole blood and urine

Herein a method was develop and validated for the detection and quantification of five new psychoactive substances (NPS) belonging to three categories: synthetic cathinones (mephedrone, 3,4-MDPV), opioids (AH-7921) and cannabinoids (JWH-018, AM-2201) by EI GC-MS. Target analytes were quantified in whole blood; in urine the same compounds plus methylone were detected. Liquid-liquid extraction by MTBE - butyl acetate (1:1, v/v) in blood and butyl acetate in urine was applied for the recovery of analytes, while no derivatization was necessary for their sensitive detection and quantification. The method showed good linearity for all analytes within a concentration range from 0.25 to 2 μg/mL for mephedrone, from 0.02 to 0.16 μg/mL for 3,4-MDPV and AH-7921 and from 0.005 to 0.04 μg/mL for JWH-018 and AM-2201. LOD ranged from 0.002 μg/mL (JWH-018 and AM-2201 in blood and urine), to 0.08 μg/mL (mephedrone in urine). LOQ in blood ranged from 0.005 μg/mL for JWH-018 and AM-2201 to 0.25 μg/mL for mephedrone. Accuracy was within acceptable limits with % bias ranging from +20% to -17.98% for intra-assay study and from +18.87% to -11.16% for inter-assay study. Precision was found to be between 2.60% and 17.17% (CV%) for intra-assay study and from 6.03% to 13.72% (CV%) for inter-assay study. An intra laboratory comparison provided proof of the method robustness. The developed method can be used for the reliable and fast quantification of five NPS in blood and the detection of six NPS in urine within the practice of a clinical or forensic toxicology laboratory.