A case of positive doping associated with a botanical food supplement.

In this manuscript the chemical and pharmacokinetic evaluation of a doping case associated with the use of an Ephedra-labelled dietary supplement is reported. The urine of a Dutch professional cyclist was found to be positive for norpseudoephedrine at a doping control. An inquiry revealed that the cyclist had consumed a liquid herbal food supplement with Ephedra as one of its 15 declared ingredients. Chemical analysis revealed concentrations of 6.8-8.2 mg/ml of norpseudoephedrine and 0.02-0.03 mg/ml of ephedrine in several batches, which could have caused the positive doping test. Since the International Olympic Committee (IOC) list of doping substances comprises several substances which occur naturally in botanicals, doping agents like ephedrines and/or caffeine may be taken unwittingly in the form of herbal food supplements. In this case, the predominance of norpseudoephedrine over ephedrine was explained by spiking with norpseudoephedrine, showing that adulteration of herbal food supplements with undeclared agents also have to be taken into account. Our report demonstrates a need for improved quality control of herbal food supplements.

Performance of Abusign drugs-of-abuse slide tests with particluar emphasis on concentrations near the cutoff: comparison with FPIA-ADx and confirmation of results with GC-MS.

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the performance of Abusign test slides in comparison with fluorescence polarization immunoassay (FPIA)-ADx and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) confirmation with special emphasis on concentrations near the cutoff. Analysis was performed on 35 individual slide tests for cocaine (cutoff, 300 ng/mL), cannabinoids (cutoff, 100 ng/mL), and opiates (cutoff, 300 ng/mL); 104 tests for cannabinoids (cutoff, 50 ng/mL); and 34 panel slides (amphetamine cutoff 1000 ng/mL, cocaine cutoff 300 ng/mL, opiates cutoff 300 ng/mL, and cannabinoids cutoff 100 ng/mL). Urine samples that had a concentration measured with FPIA-ADx within +/-25% of the Abusign cutoff were selected. Inter- and intra-individual agreement were assessed from the readings of the slides (positive or negative) by four persons at t = 3, 5, and 10 min after sample incubation. In addition, the sensitivity and specificity of the cannabinoids slide test (50 ng/mL) were compared with those of FPIA-ADx using GC-MS as the gold standard. There was a considerable variation in the reading of the slides between different persons. In addition, for the same observer the reading could depend upon the time of incubation. In comparison with FPIA-ADx, the Abusign test slides showed a high sensitivity (46% vs. 87%) and a low specificity (95% vs. 51%). We concluded that the Abusign slide test is unsuitable for situations in which a reliable test result is desired because of the low interindividual agreement, the dependency of the test result upon time, and the low specificity. However, the test slides may be of value in toxicological screening.

Poppy seeds: differences in morphine and codeine content and variation in inter- and intra-individual excretion.

Poppy seeds from seven different origins (Dutch, Australian, Hungarian, Spanish, Czech, and two Turkish) were analyzed for the amount of opiates present. Four grams of each kind of seeds, equivalent to the amount of seeds on two bagels, were ingested by volunteers. One volunteer also ingested four times the same amount of poppy seeds from the same origin (Spanish). During 24 hours urine samples were obtained and screened for the presence of morphine and codeine using the FPIA technique (cut-off = 200 ng/mL) and a GC/MS confirmation with a limit of detection (LOD) of 25 ng/mL for codeine and morphine. Poppy seeds from different origins contain a wide variation of morphine (2-251 micro g/g) and codeine (0.4-57.1 micro g/g) content. No other opiate could be detected. After ingestion a large interindividual variation of excretion of opiates exists. The testing results from the same kind of seeds ingested four times with a one week interval by the same volunteer also show a poor reproduceability. Several kinds of poppy seeds can give positive testing results (Australian, Hungarian, Spanish and one kind of Turkish seeds). Within 24 hours all testing results became negative.