Citation

Sugie KI, Kurakami D, Akutsu M, Saito K. Forensic Toxicol. 2018; 36(2): 261-269.

Affiliation

3Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hoshi University, 2-4-41 Ebara, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, 142-8501 Japan.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s11419-017-0400-y

PMID

29963202

PMCID

PMC6002434

Abstract

PURPOSE: Phenethylamines constitute the majority of drug-related arrests in Japan. Recently, the smuggling of tert-butoxycarbonyl (t-Boc)-protected phenethylamines has become of increasing concern, because of the difficult identification of these masked substances.

METHODS: In this study, a rapid and accurate method for the detection of t-Boc-methamphetamine (t-Boc-MP) by direct analysis in real time-time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (DART-TOF-MS) was developed. The efficiency of the method was evaluated by comparison with conventional gas chromatography-MS (GC-MS) and liquid chromatography-TOF-MS (LC-TOF-MS) techniques.

RESULTS: During GC-MS analysis of t-Boc-MP, MP was generated in the injection port, which can lead to an analytical error. In the LC-TOF-MS spectrum, fragment ions were detected, which were generated by McLafferty rearrangement in the ion source. On the other hand, in the DART-TOF-MS analysis of t-Boc-MP, pyrolysis could be suppressed by using a micro-syringe injection method, and the fragment ions generated by McLafferty rearrangement were still observed. Moreover, protonated t-Boc-MP could be detected.

CONCLUSIONS: Hence, DART-TOF-MS provides a rapid and accurate method for the detection of t-Boc-MP, allowing suppression of the pyrolysis reaction and identification of both fragment ions and protonated t-Boc-MP. To our knowledge, this is the first report for detecting t-Boc-MP by MS techniques.

Language: en

Keywords

McLafferty rearrangement; Pyrolysis; Rapid detection by DART–TOF-MS; tert-Butoxycarbonyl-methamphetamine (t-Boc-MP); “Masked” methamphetamine