Chiral Drug Analysis in Forensic Chemistry: An Overview

Abstract

Many substances of forensic interest are chiral and available either as racemates or pure enantiomers. Application of chiral analysis in biological samples can be useful for the determination of legal or illicit drugs consumption or interpretation of unexpected toxicological effects. Chiral substances can also be found in environmental samples and revealed to be useful for determination of community drug usage (sewage epidemiology), identification of illicit drug manufacturing locations, illegal discharge of sewage and in environmental risk assessment. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the application of chiral analysis in biological and environmental samples and their relevance in the forensic field. Most frequently analytical methods used to quantify the enantiomers are liquid and gas chromatography using both indirect, with enantiomerically pure derivatizing reagents, and direct methods recurring to chiral stationary phases.

Keywords: chiral drugs; enantiomers; forensic chemistry; illicit drugs; pharmaceuticals.

Figure 1

Application of chiral drug analysis in forensic chemistry.

Figure 2

Relative number of each class of chiral drug referred in the reviewed enantioselective published studies and the analytical methods used for separation of the chiral drugs in biological fluids.

Figure 3

Chromatogram representing the enantioseparation of R/S-AM, R/S-MA, R/S-MDA, R/S-MDMA and R/S-MDEA as R-MTPCl derivatives in whole blood concentrations at (A) 2 µg/g and (B) at 0.002 µg/g, respectively. Reproduction with permission of Elsevier (Figure 1 from Rasmussen et al. [67]).

Figure 4

Relative number of each class of chiral drug referred in the reviewed enantioselective published studies and the analytical methods for separation of the chiral drugs in environmental samples.

Figure 5

Chromatogram and mass spectra of WWTP effluent sample showing the enantiomers of FLX, VNF, BSP, MET and PHO. Reproduction with permission of Elsevier (Figure 2 from Ribeiro et al. [39]).