Citation

Canfield JR, Agarwal S, Fortener SK, Sprague JE. J. Forensic Sci. 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

The Ohio Attorney General's Center for the Future of Forensic Science, Bowling Green State University, 116 Life Sciences, Bowling Green, OH, 43403.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, American Society for Testing and Materials, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/1556-4029.14437

PMID

32347988

Abstract

Eosin Y is a potential new color test for use in detecting illicit drugs that has not been extensively studied. In the present study, a variety of drugs of abuse and fentanyl analogues were tested to determine which drugs will bind to eosin Y, which functional groups are capable of binding and eliciting a color change, and a mechanism for eosin Y binding to fentanyl. Further, these agents were combined with common cutting agents and other drugs of abuse in order to determine the fentanyl detection limit in a drug mixture using an eosin Y test strip. Additionally, cobalt thiocyanate was used to determine whether the combination of cobalt thiocyanate and eosin Y has the potential to identify fentanyl. Through the testing performed, we concluded that (i) Eosin Y is capable of detecting low amounts of fentanyl down to 1%, (ii) Eosin Y binds to select tertiary amines to produce an orange to pink color change, and (iii) Eosin Y binds to the nonpiperidine ring nitrogen of fentanyl as a primary binding site and the piperidine ring nitrogen as a secondary binding site. While the cobalt thiocyanate assay detected 1% fentanyl in some of the mixtures, eosin Y detected 1% fentanyl in all mixtures. Finally, eosin Y was able to detect fentanyl in forensic case samples containing heroin and various cutting agents. Based on our results, eosin Y has the potential to screen for fentanyl and fentanyl analogues and can detect fentanyl in low amounts when mixed with common cutting agents.

© 2020 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Language: en

Keywords

cobalt thiocyanate; color test; eosin Y; fentanyl analogues; presumptive drug test; tertiary amines