Detection and Quantification of Alprazolam Added to Long Drinks by Near Infrared Spectroscopy and Chemometrics

Abstract

In the present work, a fast, relatively cheap, and green analytical strategy to identify and quantify the fraudulent (or voluntary) addition of a drug (alprazolam, the API of Xanax®) to an alcoholic drink of large consumption, namely gin and tonic, was developed using coupling near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) and chemometrics. The approach used was both qualitative and quantitative as models were built that would allow for highlighting the presence of alprazolam with high accuracy, and to quantify its concentration with, in many cases, an acceptable error. Classification models built using partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) allowed for identifying whether a drink was spiked or not with the drug, with a prediction accuracy in the validation phase often higher than 90%. On the other hand, calibration models established through the use of partial least squares (PLS) regression allowed for quantifying the drug added with errors of the order of 2–5 mg/L.

Keywords

• near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy
• alprazolam
• chemometrics
• partial least squares (PLS) regression
• partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA)
• drug-facilitated sex assault (DFSA)