Estimation of the consumption level of four drugs in Beijing using wastewater-based epidemiology / 中华预防医学杂志

Objective: To estimate the consumption level of four drugs in Beijing using wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE). Methods: The primary sludge from one large wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) was collected in Beijing from July 2020 to February 2021. The concentrations of codeine, methadone, ketamine and morphine in the sludge were detected through solid-phase extraction-liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The consumption, prevalence and number of users of four drugs were estimated by using the WBE approach. Results: Among 416 sludge samples, codeine had the highest detection rate (82.93%, n=345) with a concentration [M (Q1, Q3)] of 0.40 (0.22-0.8) ng·g-1, and morphine had the lowest detection rate (28.37%,n=118) with a concentration [M (Q1, Q3)] of 0.13 (0.09, 0.17) ng·g-1. There was no significant difference in the consumption of the four drugs on working days and weekends (all P values>0.05). Drug consumption was significantly higher in winter than that in summer and autumn (all P values <0.05). The consumption [M (Q1, Q3)] of codeine, methadone, ketamine and morphine in winter was 24.9 (15.58, 38.6), 9.39 (4.57, 26.72), 9.84 (5.18, 19.45) and 5.67 (3.57, 13.77) μg·inhabitant-1·day-1, respectively. For these drugs, there was an upward trend in the average drug consumption during summer, autumn and winter (the Z values of the trend test were 3.23, 3.16, 2.19, and 3.32, respectively and all P values<0.05). The prevalence [M (Q1, Q3)] of codeine, methadone, ketamine and morphine were 0.0056% (0.003 4%, 0.009 2%), 0.0148% (0.009 6%, 0.026 7%),0.0333% (0.0210%, 0.0710%) and 0.0072% (0.003 8%, 0.011 7%), respectively. The estimated number of drug users [M (Q1, Q3)] was 918 (549, 1 511), 2 429 (1 578, 4 383), 5 451 (3 444, 11 642) and 1 173 (626, 1 925),respectively. Conclusion: Codeine, methadone, ketamine and morphine have been detected in the sludge of WWTPs in Beijing, and the consumption level of these drugs varies in different seasons.

Determination of opiates in biological human samples by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry / 法医学杂志

OBJECTIVE@#Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was developed for the determination of opiates in biological samples according to the emerging problem in drugs abuse.@*METHODS@#Opiates such as heroin, 6-acetylmorphine, morphine, codeine, acetylcodeine, hydrocodone and hydromorphone were isolated from human blood, urine, oral fluid and hair using a simple extraction and consequently analyzed using LC-MS/MS. The method was evaluated by real cases.@*RESULTS@#The mobile phase give the optimum separation for opiates. The detection limit of morphine in urine with dilution and liquid-liquid extraction and in hair is 10ng/mL, 0.01 ng/mL and 0.01 ng/mg, respectively.@*CONCLUSION@#The method is simple and rapid, offering superior sensitivity and selectivity for opiates. The target compounds comprising hydrocodone and hydromorphone enlarge the applied area.

Detection of morphine in opioid abusers hair by GC/MS

Thirty hair samples were collected from the male opioid abusers in which the presence of morphine in their urine samples was confirmed by Thin Layer Chromatography [TLC] analyses. The hair samples were washed, cut into small pieces and extracted in a mixture of methanol-triflouroacetic acid [9:1]. The methanolic phase was evaporated to dryness under nitrogen stream and derivitized by addition of N-methyl-N-trimethylsilyl triflouroacetamide [MSTFA] and 1% trimethyl iodosilane [TMIS] with sonication. One micro liter of each derivitized sample was injected into a Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer [GC/MS] system consisting of a capillary column and finnigan MS with selective ion monitoring [SIM] mode. The selected mass for ions codeine and morphine were 370 and 429, respectively. The limit of detection [LOD] was set at 0.03ng/mg of the hair. By using the above procedure, morphine was detectable in all of the examined samples and this method is capable to detec low levels of morphine in hair for a long period of time following the last intake of the drug

Spectrophotometric determination of paracetamol, Salicylamide and codeine phosphate in mixture

A spectrophotometric method for the analysis of a mixture of paracetamol, salicylamide and codeine phosphate is described. Paracetamol is determined by measuring its absorbance at lambdamax247 nm after separation from salicylamide and codeine phosphate at pH 8 by solvent extraction. The other two components were separated through the acid-dye method, where codeine phosphate forms an ion-pair complex with thymol blue at pH3 [lambdamax247 nm]. While salicylamide doesnot form such complex and can be estimated; without interference; at lambdamax307nm.beer-Lambert law was adhered to over the range of 2-14,4-24, and 5-30 micro g/ml for paracetamol, salicylamide and codeine phosphate respectively. This method was successfully applied for the analysis of laboratory synthetic mixture and also for pharmaceutical dosage from containing this ternary mixture