DETECTION OF COCAINE AND ITS POLAR TRANSFORMATION PRODUCTS AND METABOLITES IN HUMAN URINE

This paper describes a method for the analysis of thermal degradation compounds generated from cocaine during the smoking process, together with chemical and enzymatic biotransformation products which, by virtu e of their polarity, are not recovered by existing analytical procedur es. The method employs cation exchange solid phase extraction coupled with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Compounds identified in uri ne from subjects of cocaine-related death included cocaine, benzoylecg onine, ecgonine methyl ester and ecgonine, which were measured quantit atively, and ecgonidine, ecgonidine methyl ester, ecgonine ethyl ester , ethyl benzoylecgonine, norcocaine, benzoylnorecgonine, cinnamoylcoca ine, and cinnamoylecgonine. The concentrations of ecgonine (0-104 mu g /ml) and ecgonine methyl ester (0-177 mu g/ml) were substantial and av eraged about one tenth the concentrations of benzoylecgonine (0-1074 m u g/ml) and cocaine (0-1221 mu g/ml). These and several of the other c ompounds identified will be valuable markers for cocaine use, in degra ded samples and for indicating the route of administration.