EASI‐IMS an expedite and secure technique to screen for 25I‐NBOH in blotter papers

Abstract

The increasing number of new psychoactive substances (NPS) and their quick worldwide spreading, often only slightly modified in the form of new derivatives and analogues, have brought the need for fast, wide-ranging, and unequivocal identification methods in clinical and forensic investigations. Because it usually provides secure results, gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS) has been routinely employed as the standard technique for the detection of NPS in blotter papers. For 25I-NBOH (N-(2-hydroxybenzyl)-2-(4-iodo-2,5-dimethoxyphenyl)ethan-1-aminium), however, GC-MS analysis of an blotter paper extract leads to incorrect results. In this work, we investigated whether easy ambient sonic-spray mass spectrometry imaging (EASI-IMS), and ambient ionization MS method can be applied directly to the surface of the sample requiring therefore no extraction or sample preparations, would serve as an efficient, sensitive, and secure alternative for 25I-NBOH screening.

Exploring the chemical profile of designer drugs by ESI(+) and PSI(+) mass spectrometry—An approach on the fragmentation mechanisms and chemometric analysis

“…For both 25C‐NBOH [C 17 H 21 NO 3 Cl] + , m/z 322.1209, and 25I‐NBOH [C 17 H 21 NO 3 I] + , m/z 414.0569, Figure 6A, exists the loss of C 7 H 9 NO (123 Da) relative to α C–N cleavage of the carbon, which is interconnected to the benzene dimethoxy group, getting [C 8 H 10 O 2 Cl] + , m/z 199.0522, and [C 10 H 12 O 2 I] + , m/z 290.9881, respectively. Another fragmentation for the two molecules is the migration of phenolic hydrogen to the nitrogen with subsequent heterolytic cleavage of the α C–N bond of the carbon bonded to the phenolic group, Figure 6B, again generating the loss of a fragment common to both molecules, which is an epoxide (106 Da) followed by the formation of the [C 10 H 15 NO 2 Cl] + , m/z 216.0788, and [C 10 H 15 N 2 I] + , m/z 308.0147, fragments, respectively 61 …”

NBOMe Designer Drugs: GC-MS and LC-QTOF/MS Detection on Blotter Paper by Brazilian Federal Police (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil)

“…NBOMes have recently become popular as drugs of abuse 9 Table 2. This analytical finding suggest that another routs of synthesis and a bigger range of raw material, excipients and active ingredients must be monitored, following the trends of drug dealers, once it is known that MDMA can be synthesized from different synthesis routes.…”

NBOMe Designer Drugs: GC-MS and LC-QTOF/MS Detection on Blotter Paper by Brazilian Federal Police (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil)

“…To date, only few and very recently papers about blotter paper samples seizures in Brazil were published 1,9,13,[24][25][26] . The present study is a small start in the sense of to know the actual scenario of the blotter paper drug market.…”

“…NBOMes have recently become popular as drugs of abuse 9 and some compounds of this class of substances, like 25I-NBOMe, 25C-NBOMe, 25D-NBOMe, 25B-NBOMe, were considered illegal in Brazil since 2014 10 . The first identification of NBOMes in BFP was in 2012 and from that year until June 2016 the number of expert reports positive to NBOMes detection totaled 186 in the whole country.…”