Two overpressured layer chromatography (OPLC) systems were developed for the screening of toxicologically relevant basic drugs in forensic and clinical contexts. The OPLC1 system was trichloroethylene -methylethylketone -n-butanol -acetic acidwater 17+8+25+6+4 and the OPLC2 system was butyl acetateethanol -tripropylamine -water 85+9.25+5+0.75 with presaturation. Both systems were tested on high performance silica gel plates. The R f values of the drugs were reproducible, the peak shapes were symmetrical, and the chromatographic systems showed low mutual correlation (r = 0.103). The separation numbers (SN) were 27.5 and 29.2 for OPLC1 and OPLC2, respectively, which are more than two times higher than those obtained with TLC systems in general. The combination of the systems was demonstrated to be feasible in the screening for drugs in autopsy urine samples, utilizing automated identification by hR f c /UV library search with combined dual-system reporting. Downloaded by [University of California Santa Cruz] at 13:28 03 December 2014 ORDER REPRINTS 162OJANPERÄ ET AL.
ORDER
REPRINTS
OVERPRESSURED LAYER CHROMATOGRAPHY OF DRUGS 169The most concise fractions, in general, were obtained by using a more lipophilic carbonyl compound, butyl acetate, with a small amount of water and by adjusting the final mobile phase strength with an alcohol.
CONCLUSIONSThis study is the first that introduces OPLC methods for comprehensive drug screening, showing that even compounds with large differences in polarity properties can be analyzed by single OPLC methods. However, this requires a very careful adjustment of the mobile phase components to avoid the formation of interfering fronts and to obtain a favorable analyte distribution. The present two methods possess separation numbers over two times higher than ordinary TLC methods and show little mutual correlation.In addition, the developing times are shorter than generally in TLC. Though the current instrumentation allows easy and well controlled operation, its main disadvantage is the relatively high price of factory-sealed OPLC plates.