Solid phase extraction of 22 drugs of interest in the forensic toxicology field

Many solid phase extraction columns which are dedicated to the extraction of various drugs associated with their specific protocols are proposed to the analyst. We have optimised a one stage procedure for the extraction from whole blood of acidic, neutral and basic drugs. Each step of the protocol has been optimised so as to obtain the best extraction recovery. The analysis of the extracts (identification and quantification) has been realised with the help of High Performance Liquid Chromatography system coupled with a Diode Array Detector (HPLC-DAD). The SPE Evolute ABN column (Acid Base Neutral) by Argonaut is the column which does extract the more and the best the different analysed components among all the columns which have been tested. Oasis HLB column (Hydrophilic Lipophilic Balance) by Waters also allows the extraction of the whole list of active principles studied but with lower recoveries. The other columns studied (sold by Varian and Phenomenex) presented insufficient results for this project. In the last step of the work we checked if the results did fit to the forensic toxicology purpose; detection and quantification limits have been compared to therapeutic and toxic concentrations usually found in forensic toxicology. Implementing this new procedure allowed us to create a method of comprehensive screening of drugs frequently implicated in forensic toxicology.