Determination of γ-hydroxybutyric acid in saliva by capillary electrophoresis coupled with contactless conductivity and indirect UV absorbance detectors.

The aim of the current study was to optimise and validate the methodology for determination of γ-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) in saliva by CE combined with a contactless conductivity detector (C(4)D) and indirect UV absorbance detection (λ(ABS) = 210 nm). The optimized BGE, consisting of 8.5 mM maleic acid, 17 mM arginine, 255 µM cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), and 15% acetonitrile, was evaluated for the separation of GHB in saliva within 6 min. The performance characteristics of the CE-C(4)D-indirect UV methodology was validated. The instrument detection and quantification limits were 0.49 and 1.6 mg/L for C(4)D, and 5.1 mg/L and 17.0 mg/L for indirect UV, respectively. The linearity was obtained over the range from 2.5 to 400 mg/L for C(4)D and from 12.5 to 400 mg/L for indirect UV. The interday precisions were within 2.3-5.7% and intraday precisions were within 1.6-9.0% for C(4)D as well as 2.1-9.3%, 5.6-10.1% for indirect UV in spiked saliva, respectively. The recoveries were within 87.2-104.4%. The matrix effects were +53.2% for small concentrations up to 25 mg/L for C(4)D and +23.6% for concentrations up to 75 for mg/L for indirect UV detection. No matrix effects were observed for higher concentration levels. In conclusion, CE-C4D-indirect UV can offer a rapid, accurate, sensitive, and definitive method for the determination of GHB abuse in saliva samples as a forensic screening tool.

Fluorescence, electrophoretic and chromatographic fingerprints of herbal medicines and their comparative chemometric analysis.

The aim of the present study was to compare the polyphenolic compositions of 47 medicinal herbs (HM) and four herbal tea mixtures from Central Estonia by rapid, reliable and sensitive Spectral Fluorescence Signature (SFS) method in a front face mode. The SFS method was validated for the main identified HM representatives including detection limits (0.037mgL(-1) for catechin, 0.052mgL(-1) for protocatechuic acid, 0.136mgL(-1) for chlorogenic acid, 0.058mgL(-1) for syringic acid and 0.256mgL(-1) for ferulic acid), linearity (up to 5.0-15mgL(-1)), intra-day precision (RSDs=6.6-10.6%), inter-day precision (RSDs=6.4-13.8%), matrix effect (-15.8 to +5.5) and recovery (85-107%). The phytochemical fingerprints were differentiated by parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) combined with hierarchical cluster analysis (CA) and principal component analysis (PCA). HM were clustered into four main clusters (catechin-like, hydroxycinnamic acid-like, dihydrobenzoic acid-like derivatives containing HM and HM with low/very low content of fluorescent constituents) and 14 subclusters (rich, medium, low/very low contents). The average accuracy and precision of CA for validation HM set were 97.4% (within 85.2-100%) and 89.6%, (within 66.7-100%), respectively. PARAFAC-PCA/CA has improved the analysis of HM by the SFS method. The results were verified by two separation methods CE-DAD and HPLC-DAD-MS also combined with PARAFAC-PCA/CA. The SFS-PARAFAC-PCA/CA method has potential as a rapid and reliable tool for investigating the fingerprints and predicting the composition of HM or evaluating the quality and authenticity of different standardised formulas. Moreover, SFS-PARAFAC-PCA/CA can be implemented as a laboratory and/or an onsite method.