Isolation and Identification of Drugs of Forensic Interest by High Performance Reverse Phase Ion Pair Partition Chromatography

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Abstract
A method is presented for the isolation and identification of milligram or microgram quantities of drugs of forensic interest. High performance reverse phase ion pair partition chromatography is performed on a 9.4 millimeter internal diameter microparticulate octadecylsilane column employing a water, methanol, acetic acid, alkylsulfonate mobile phase. Subsequent to collection from the liquid chromatograph, a simple extraction is performed followed by Infrared (IR) analysis and/or solid probe Mass Spectrometry (MS). A study is presented using phenylpropanolamine hydrochloride and ephedrine hydrochloride as a test model for the determination of the optimum concentration of counter ion required for a semi-preparative separation. The method is applied to an LSD seizure from a clandestine laboratory, methamphetamine in a street exhibit, and an amobarbital - secobarbital mixture in a multi-barbiturate capsule.