Background:
Abuse of drugs is associated with several medical, forensic, toxicology and
social challenges. “Drugs of abuse” testing is therefore an important issue.
Objective:
We propose a simple CE-based method for the quantification of amphetamine, codeine
and morphine after direct injection of Exhaled Breath Condensate (EBC) by the aid of simple stacking
mode and an off-line pre-concentration method.
Methods:
Using graphene oxide adsorbents, amphetamine, codeine and morphine were extracted
from EBC in order to eliminate the proteins and other interferences. In addition to off-line method,
an online stacking mode was applied to improve the analytical signal obtained from the instrument.
Results:
The validation parameters were experimented on the developed method based on the FDA
guideline over concentration ranges of 12.5-100, 30-500 and 10-1250 ng/mL associated with amphetamine,
codeine and morphine, respectively. Small volumes (around 100 μL) of EBC were collected
using a lab-made setup and successfully analyzed using the proposed method where precisions
and accuracies (within day and between days) were in accordance with the guideline (recommended
less than 15 % for biological samples). The recovery tests were used to evaluate the matrix effect and
data (94 to 105 %) showed that the proposed method can be applied in different EBC matrix samplings
of subjects.
Conclusion:
The proposed method is superior for simultaneous determination of amphetamine, codeine
and morphine over chromatographic analyses because it is fast and consumes fewer chemicals,
with no derivatization step.
