Spectroscopic Trends for the Determination of Illicit Drugs in Oral Fluid

Abstract

The present work aims to review all of the articles published so far, focused on the determination of drugs of abuse in oral fluid. This fluid provides a simpler, faster, and more controllable sampling in comparison with the other biological fluids, such as blood or urine. Actually, the main goal of the researchers is to lower the limit of detection (LOD) to detect quantities of drugs smaller than the cut-off limits established by law for drug controls. Advances in Raman, infrared (IR), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy applications are discussed. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has been shown as the most sensitive technique for the detection of illicit drugs in oral fluid. The use of IR spectroscopy for determining drugs of abuse in oral fluid is growing, although the LODs obtained until now do not yet satisfy the necessities in the forensic field. Finally, NMR spectroscopy has seldom been used to determine drugs in oral fluid. Another future trend seems to be related with the use of portable instrumentation, which would allow us to perform in-situ analysis. This last application seems to be particularly promising to perform roadside drug tests and to identify overdose drugs in patients in emergency conditions.

Keywords:

• Raman spectroscopy
• surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy
• infrared spectroscopy
• nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy
• illicit drugs detection
• oral fluid

Acknowledgments

V. D'Elia thanks the University of Alcalá for the scholarship offered.