Simultaneous determination of dextromoramide, propoxyphene and norpropoxyphene in necropsic whole blood by liquid chromatography

Determination of dextropropoxyphene and nordextropropoxyphene in urine by liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

Dextropropoxyphene and nordextropropoxyphene were extracted from urine samples with mixed mode solid-phase extraction cartridges. After elution and evaporation to dryness, the eluate was dissolved in mobile phase and each sample was injected in a LC-ESI-MS system. Quantification was carried out in the selected ion monitoring mode. This article shows the possibility to analyse drugs of abuse substances in urine with a single quadrupole mass spectrometer if only a thorough work-up procedure and a sufficient chromatographic separation is accomplished. In order to enhance the fragmentation of the analytes, in-source fragmentation was carried out. One fragment and the pseudomolecular ion per analyte together with chromatographic retention times were sufficient to verify that the sought compound was found in the samples. In- and between day variation was lower than 10% and the recovery was well above 90%. The analytes were quantified in the range 100-10000 ng/ml urine.

Chiral analysis of methylphenidate and dextromoramide by capillary electrophoresis

Capillary electrophoretic methods have been developed to separate the enantiomers of methylphenidate (MPH) and dextromoramide. For MPH separation was achieved with heptakis (2,6-di-O-methyl)-beta-cyclodextrin (DMCD) as chiral selector in a 100 mM phosphoric acid buffer adjusted to pH 3.0 with triethanolamine. Commercial samples of D,L-erytho-MPH HCl and D,L-threo-MPH HCl were analysed using the method. There was no evidence of the presence of D,L-threo-MPH HCl in D,L-erytho-MPH HCl and vice versa. The ratio of the enantiomers was determined for each diastereoisomer. Hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin was the chiral selector of choice for the chiral separation of the enantiomers of moramide. The separation which gave a resolution of about 3.5 was achieved in 4 min using only a 6 cm of length of capillary. In a sample of dextro-R-moramide tartrate only a small quantity (4.9% w/w) of levo-S-moramide was detected with this method.

Liquid chromatographic-thermospray tandem mass spectrometric quantitative analysis of some drugs with hypnotic, sedative and tranquillising properties in whole blood

Results are presented of a liquid chromatographic-thermospray tandem mass spectrometric method of analysing different drugs in whole blood. Substances with hypnotic, sedative and tranquillising properties from the benzodiazepine, the thioxanthene, the butyrophenone, the methadone and the diphenylbutylpiperidine groups were investigated. It appears that ten to hundred times lower detection limits for the substances in whole blood can be reached with this method compared with methods more commonly used. Detection limits in the range 10-100 pg per injection (equivalent to 0.05-0.5 ng/ml whole blood) were reached for the majority of the compounds.