THE SIMULTANEOUS SEPARATION AND QUANTITATION OF THE ENANTIOMERS OF MDMA AND MDA USING GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY WITH NITROGEN-PHOSPHORUS DETECTION

A rapid and relatively inexpensive procedure is described for the simu ltaneous analysis of the enantiomers of MDMA and MDA. The method invol ves the use of extraction at basic pH followed by reaction with the un ichiral reagent S-(-)-N-trifluoroacetylprolyl chloride and subsequent analysis on a gas chromatograph equipped with a nitrogen-phosphorus de tector.. The procedure has been applied to analysis in whole brain and individual brain regions in rats following administration of (+/-)-MD MA. Formation of MDA from MDMA was observed, and in the study in whole brain (at 1, 2, 4, and 8 h after MDMA injection) levels of the (-) en antiomer were higher than those of the (+) enantiomer in the case of M DMA while the reverse was true for the enantiomers of MDA; the same pa ttern was observed in the brain regions studied. MDMA was cleared from the brain more quickly than was MDA. Regional differences were observ ed in the levels of MDMA and MDA.