The presence of morphine in ganglionic tissues of Modiolus deminissus: a highly sensitive method of quantitation for morphine and its derivatives

Morphine and morphine-6-glucuronide, a morphine metabolite, have been ident ified and quantified in Modiolus deminissus pedal ganglia at a level of 2.4 1 and 0.95 ng/ganglia, respectively. These opiate alkaloids are normally fo und at low concentrations in invertebrate and vertebrate tissues, including neural. Given this problem, we also describe a new opiate extraction proto col as well as a high-performance liquid chromatography purification proced ure that can separate and quantify morphine and its derivatives at sub-nano gram concentrations. Furthermore, both morphine and morphine-6-glucuronide were identified in this mollusk's pedal ganglia by mass spectrometry analys is. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.