Simultaneous Determination of 4-Substituted Cathinones (4-MMC, 4-MEC and 4-FMC) in Human Urine by HPLC-DAD

Abstract

This study developed a selective and rapid high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection method for the confirmation of different cathinone derivates in human urine. Samples were prepared by solid-phase extraction (SPE) using procaine hydrochloride as the internal standard. The chromatographic separation was performed on a Kinetex PFP column using isocratic elution. The mobile phase was composed of a mixture of acetonitrile (33%, v/v) and 0.005M ammonium trifluoroacetate buffer (67%, v/v; pH 4.93 ± 0.03) with a flow rate of 0.350 mL/min. The diode array detection was performed at 262 nm. The method was linear over the concentration range of 25-2,400 ng/mL. Intra-day and inter-day precision values for cathinones were less than 1.26% (relative standard deviation). The limit of detection for any compounds extracted from human urine by the optimized SPE method was 40 ng/mL and the limit of quantification was 100 ng/mL in the urine. The recovery rate of SPE was between 71 and 82% with a lower relative standard deviation than 2.35%.

LC–MS/MS and volumetric absorptive microsampling for quantitative bioanalysis of cathinone analogues in dried urine, plasma and oral fluid samples

“…So far, a few methods, mainly based on gas chromatography and liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS or LC-MS), are present in the scientific literature for the analysis of one or more synthetic cathinones, in powder or seized samples [14][15][16][17][18][19], whole blood [20,21], plasma or serum [22,23], urine [20,24,25], oral fluid [26,27] and DBSs [28].…”

Forensic electrochemistry: the electroanalytical sensing of synthetic cathinone-derivatives and their accompanying adulterants in “legal high” products

“…The laboratory-based analysis of synthetic cathinones has been published by a number of groups using a range of chromatographic techniques including HPLC and GC-MS with LC-MS methods seemingly the preferred and established technique of choice. 5,7,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] Table 1 provides a thorough overview of all the reported analytical methodologies to date. Of note, Santali et al provided the rst fully validated HPLC method for the quantication of (AE)-mephedrone 12 where limits of detection and quantication of 0.1 and 0.3 mg mL À1 respectively were reported.…”

Regal electrochemistry: sensing of the synthetic cathinone class of new psychoactive substances (NPSs)

“…A range of chromatographic techniques including High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) have been applied to the detection of synthetic cathinones by many groups, 4,5,[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] however electrochemistry is advantageous as an analytical tool being sensitive, selective as well as low cost and having the potential to be scaled down to a portable device. [28][29][30][31][32][33][34] Previous work 2,34 has reported novel electroanalytical sensing protocols developed towards the electrochemical oxidation 34 in light of the scarcity of coins minted pre-1992.…”