Summary:
Opiate abuse is drastically on the rise in the United States. In addition to traditional naturally occurring opiate compounds, forensic toxicologists also need the ability to rapidly identify synthetic opioid-like drugs. Many of these compounds present as heroin-like overdoses in death investigation cases, but traditional basic drug extractions may unassumingly wash the target compounds off of the SPE column prior to elution.
Often manufactured overseas and shipped to the United States illegally, these compounds have varying levels of potency when compared to morphine (Table 1). Immunoassays are not reliable screening tools for these designer drugs/metabolites, and it’s difficult for mass spectrometry libraries to keep up with their constantly changing structures.
Presented is a rapid, three step SPE procedure for the identification and quantification of fentanyl and its major urinary metabolite norfentanyl, in addition to four “designer” compounds: U-47700, W-18, W-15 and furanyl fentanyl. Due to the rapid use and abuse of fentanyl in medical and recreational settings, respectively, it is important to develop a method that would accurately extract this Schedule II drug from any other novel compounds that may be present.
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