M. Lopezartiguez et al., UNEQUIVOCAL IDENTIFICATION OF SEVERAL COMMON ADULTERANTS AND DILUENTSIN STREET SAMPLES OF COCAINE BY INFRARED-SPECTROSCOPY, Journal of forensic sciences, 40(4), 1995, pp. 602-610
This paper describes an improved method for the direct identification
of adulterants and diluents in street samples of cocaine using infrare
d spectroscopy. The proposed method requires a versatile software pack
age designed for handling infrared data on a personal computer. The sp
ectra of the mixtures of cocaine.HCl and several common adulterants (c
affeine, procaine.HCl, lidocaine.HCl and piracetam) and diluents (gluc
ose, lactose, sucrose, starch and mannitol) were recorded. Two regions
were chosen in the infrared spectra: 1800-1500 cm(-1), which includes
all the assayed adulterants, and 960-860 cm(-1), for sugars and polya
lcohols. The display of the different spectra through the computerized
program allowed the identification of the above mentioned substances
even at 5% concentration.