Simple and reliable high-performance liquid chromatography fluorimetric procedure for the determination of amphetamine-derived designer drugs

The paper describes a HPLC-fluorimetric procedure for the determination of methylenedioxyamphetamine, methylenadioxymethamphetamine, methylenedioxyeth amphetamine and N-methyl-1-(1,3-benzodioxol-5-yl)-2-butamine in urine, seru m, saliva and street samples, that features interesting advantages over oth er procedures previously described. The method requires a very small sample volume (100 mu l) and no extraction, lacks matrix effect, and is not time consuming. Linearity was in the range 50-1000 ng/ml regardless of matrix. S ensitivity and detection Limit were 50 ng/ml and 10 ng/ml, respectively, bu t they may reach 10 ng/ml and 2 ng/ml if a slight modification is introduce d in the procedure. Intra- and inter-day precision were always within 5% an d 8%, respectively. Recovery was satisfactory for all matrices. The describ ed procedure could be successfully used for clinical, epidemiological and f orensic applications. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science BN. All rights reserved.