Quantitative Analysis of Aconitum Alkaloids in the Urine and Serum of a Male Attempting Suicide by Oral Intake of Aconite Extract

Abstract

A method for the quantitation of diesterditerpene-type Aconitum alkaloids and their hydrolysis products by gas chromatography-selected ion monitoring was applied to a clinical case study. A 45-year-old male attempted suicide by oral intake of Aconitum alkaloids, which are highly intoxicant extracts of Aconitum tubers. It was estimated that he had ingested approximately 11 mg of diesterditerpene-type alkaloids but was saved by intensive gastric irrigation. Mesaconitine, aconitine, hypaconitine, and their hydrolysis products were detected in the serum on the first day only. On the other hand, some alkaloids were still detectable in the urine even six days after intoxication. Aconitum alkaloids are biotransformed, and their hydrolysis products are excreted time-dependently to the urine. The urine was a useful material to identify the toxicants in the case of aconite intoxication.

Determination of aconitine in body fluids by LC-MS-MS

“…by eating plant material or by the uptake of Aconitum preparations. The suicidal and homicidal use of aconite tubers has also been reported [12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21].…”

“…For the analysis of the Aconitum alkaloids in biological specimens such as blood, serum and urine, several GC-MS methods have been described [12,18,21,28,29]. These employ a variety of extraction procedures followed by derivatisation to their TMS derivatives.…”

Study of Aconitine toxicity in rat embryos in vitro

“…Studies in rats have shown that the CYP3A and CYP1A1/2 isoforms are involved in its metabolism (Wang et al, 2006). The metabolic pathway of aconitine in human (Mizugaki et al, 1998) is almost the same as in other mammalians such as rats and rabbits (Zhang et al, 2006). Aconitine is converted into benzoylaconine through hydrolysis in the C-8 position, and into aconine in the C-8 and C-14 positions.…”

Crystalline Drug Aconitine-loaded Poly(d,l-Lactide-CoGlycolide) Nanoparticles: Preparation and <i>in Vitro</i> Release

“…1) and is easily hydrolyzed to form more polar compounds. 6,22) Considering pH as one of the main factors aŠecting aconitine hydrolysis, which would aŠect its release from nanoparticles, the pH stability of aconitine in PBS was investigated. The results were shown in Fig.…”