Bile Analysis for Cocaine and Benzoylecgonine in Overdose Cases

Abstract

A method for determining cocaine and benzoylecgonine (BEG) in human bile using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with ultraviolet detection at 235 nm is proposed. The method uses a Lichrospher RP18 column and methanol-phosphate buffer as mobile phase. Following solid phase extraction with Bond Elut Certify cartridges, the linearity of the method was examined over the analyte concentration range 0.125–5 µg/mL in bile. The precision of the method was acceptable, with coefficients of variation less than 5%. The average extraction yield was 82% for cocaine and 76% for BEG. The proposed method was applied to 30 bile samples from individuals fatally poisoned with cocaine.

Keywords:

• Benzoylecgonine
• Bile
• Cocaine
• HPLC
• Solid-phase extraction

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors wish to acknowledge funding of this work by Spain's CICYT (Project BFI2002-03385).