Development and validation of a gas chromatography method for determination of ecstasy and amphetamines derivatives in tablets

Abstract

The abusive use of the amphetamine derivative ecsyasy in the world come increasing in the last years. Many tablets samples kept on the streets shown the presence not only of the MDMA- 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, the main drug component but also of the MDA - 3,4- methylenedioxyamphetamine and MDEA - 3,4-methylenedioxymethylethylamphetamine. The present study sought to develop and validate an analytical method for determination of MDMA, MDA and MDEA in tablets to be accessible for the most small or medium laboratories of toxicology of the development countries as Brazil. It was chosen for development and validation a gas chromatography method with flame ionization detection. The analytic validation results for MDMA, MDA and MDEA were linearity range of 1.0 to 500.0 µg/mL, intra and interassay coefficient of variation lower than 9.5% and quantification limit of 1.0 µg/mL. The detection limits were 0.7 µg/mL, 0.8 µg/mL and 0.6 µg/mL respectively to MDMA, MDA and MDEA. The method showed a good seletivity as the epinephrine, cocaine, amphetamine, methamphetamine, acethyl salicilic acid, diethyl barbituric acid, p-aminobenzoyl diethyl barbituric, paracetamol and caffeine presences did not interfere with the measurement of the three analytes.