New green DI-SPME/CE-MS method for quantitative analysis of selected illicit drugs in human whole blood

Abstract

The purpose of the research was to develop a new method that would allow the determination of selected drugs (mephedrone, MDMA, and cocaine and its metabolites: benzoylecgonine, norcocaine, and cocaethylene) in whole blood, while meeting not only the criteria of greenness, but also balancing analytical and economic aspects. For this purpose, solid phase microextraction was paired with capillary electrophoresis hyphenated to a mass spectrometer. The method was validated. Parameters such as LOD (1.2–7.2 ng/ml), LOQ (3.7–24.0 ng/ml), intra- (2.24–10.72%) and inter-day (3.97–19.01%) precision, bias (RE=0.1–14.6%), recovery (91.7–105.4%) and matrix effect (-1.8–5.4%, except benzoylecgonine) were determined. In addition to analytical parameters, the greenness of the method and its practicality and cost-effectiveness were also evaluated. The White Analytical Chemistry method was used for this purpose. A high score of 90.6/100.0 was obtained, indicating that the method balances these three aspects very well. On this basis, it was concluded that the developed DI-SPME/CE-MS method could be a useful tool for toxicological analyses.

Keywords

• Capillary electrophoresis
• Mass spectrometry
• Solid phase microextraction
• Whole blood
• Illicit drugs
• White analytical chemistry