Encapsulated Charcoal Extraction Technique for a Rapid Ouantitation of Barbiturates in Whole Blood*

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Abstract
A novel, simple, and efficient method is described for the rapid quantitation of barbiturates in whole blood. The drugs are adsorbed directly from blood onto a premeasured quantity of charcoal encapsulated within a spherical, porous, polypropylene capsule, 1 cm in diameter. The adsorption step is carried out by placing the capsule and the diluted aliquot of whole blood into a 10-ml syringe equipped with a two-way stopcock and a lacking clip. To facilitate rapid adsorption, the contents are placed under positive pressure, obtained by closing the stopcock and locking the syringe plunger in place with the clip. The enclosed system is agitated for 5 minutes, washed, and eluted with 2 ml of ethyl ether. Resolution and quantitation are carried out by gas chromatography. The yields are quantitatively linear In the range 2.5 µg/ml to 30 µg/ml in blood for buta-, amo-, pento-, and sacobarbital, respectively, and 5 µ4g/ml to 60 µg/ml for phenobarbital. The lower limit of detection is 0.05 µg/ml, except for phenobarbital, which is 0.1/ µg/ml. The extracts of both fresh and postmortem whole blood exhibit very low backgrounds in the range of sensitivities indicated. Total extraction time is 10 minutes.

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