Recovery of Morphine from Biological Samples by Hydrolysis and Solvent Extraction

Abstract

Quantitative recovery of drugs from biological samples is important when a response is to be related to the amount of drug present in a tissue sample. Morphine is one drug of interest in this regard because of its widespread use and its chemical peculiarities. Its relatively low dosage, amphoteric nature, and metabolism to a water-soluble product, 3-morphine monoglucuronide [1,2], make morphine relatively difficult to analyze in biological samples. Most quantitative analytical schemes of analysis require that the glucuronide be cleaved to free morphine for extraction into an organic solvent. Acid hydrolysis [3] and enzymatic cleavage [4] are the most popular methods for freeing the morphine. We report here a study of the recoveries of radioactively tagged morphine from biological samples of morphine-treated dogs by using hydrolysis and solvent extraction. It is possible to recover more than 90% of the morphine contained in a sample with acid hydrolysis and about 80% with enzymatic cleavage.

N‐demethylation of ethylmorphine in pregnant and non‐pregnant women and in men: an evaluation of the effects of sex steroids.

“…In six non-pregnant females in follicular and luteal phases, treatment of the urine with 0-glucuronidase increased the urinary recovery of conjugated and unconjugated EM and metabolites five-fold (n = 6; mean 46%; Table 1). A high concentration of ,3-glucuronidase (12,500 U) and a long incubation time (48 h) were used, as the conjugates of EM were more resistant to hydrolysis than those of MO (Predmore et al 1978) and of NEM (unpublished observations). As the ,-glucuronidase preparation used is contaminated with arylsulphatase, we investigated whether incubation with corresponding amounts of this enzyme increased the recovery in two urine specimens.…”

Simple and sensitive determination of free and total morphine in human liver and kidney using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

“…To our knowledge, studies such as selectivity, linearity, detection limit, accuracy and recovery focused on solid tissues are quite limited. Predmore et al studied the recovery of morphine from liver by hydrolysis and solvent extraction using radioactively tagged morphine [13]. Cingolani et al [12] presented validation data of their method developed for the analysis of total morphine in fixed tissues using 5 g of liver sample.…”

Gc/MS Metodu İle İdrarda Ayni Anda Morfi̇n, Kodei̇n Ve 6- Monoaseti̇lmorfi̇n Tayi̇ni̇ : Simultaneous Determination of Morphine, Codeine and 6- Monoacetylmorphine in Urine by Gc/MS Method

“…Bu nedenle idrarda 6-MAM tespit edebilmek için hidroliz uygulamadan numune hazırlama yönteminin kullanılması gerekmektedir (1,6,7). Ancak bu koşullarda idrarda 6-MAM tespiti mümkün olabilir ve kişinin eroin yada morfinden hangisini kullandığı kesin olarak söylenebilir (1,6,7,8,9).…”

“…6-MAM pikinin kromatogramda tespit edilememesi kişinin kesin olarak eroin değil morfin kullandığının bir göstergesidir (1,6,7,8,9). Hidroliz uygulayarak numune hazırlama yöntemine göre hazırlanmış olan idrara ait kromatograma bakıldığında ise morfin konsantrasyonunda yukarıdaki açıklamalarımızı destekler yönde önemli bir artış görülmektedir (18 …”