Establishing an optoelectronic method for the determination of synthetic cannabinoids and their metabolites is necessary because synthetic cannabinoids are a group of psychoactive compounds designed to mimic the effects of marijuana. These compounds are usually sprayed on natural plants in order to be smoked. Several synthetic cannabinoids can be found on these smoked plants simultaneously. Their effective dose is lower than that of natural marijuana but with high psychoactive potency [1]. Due to their high potential for abuse and availability, these compounds are considered to be narcotic drugs. Thus, there has been an increased demand for the development of sensitive, reliable, robust and sustainable analytical methods for the identification and quantification of these compounds by clinical, forensic and toxicological laboratories [2].
The method presented in the paper will be based on liquid chromatography with a mass spectrometer detector (LCMS/ MS). The paper aims to obtain, using the developed method, the mass spectra of synthetic cannabinoids and their metabolites. The mass spectrum represents the relative abundance of ions resulting from an ionization process of a family of molecules. This is a unique feature for each compound, which allows identification of a substance from a matrix of unknown substances [3].
This article highlights using liquid chromatography and the MRM method [1], the presence of fentanyl and norfentanyl [2] in a biological sample, in this case urine. In the method you can see the presence of each segment in the ion of the substance, obtained by ElectroSpray ionization [1], for which the confirmation is desired. The time of acquisition and the potential collision used to obtain it are specified.
The MRM method is performed with a varying concentration gradient of between 10% and 65% [3] over a 9 minute acquisition time at a constant flow rate of 0.3 ml / minute. The gradient increases from 10% to 40% in the first two minutes, then increases from 40% to 65% over the next 3 minutes. The 65% concentration remains for the next 4 minutes.
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