Quantitative determination of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine by thin-layer chromatography in ecstasy illicit pills in Tehran

Abstract

3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is the major ingredient of ecstasy illicit pills. It is a hallucinogen, central nervous system stimulant, and serotonergic neurotoxin that strongly releases serotonin from serotonergic nerves terminals. Moreover, it releases norepinephrine and dopamine from nerves terminal, but to a lesser extent than serotonin. Poisoning and even death from abusing MDMA-containing ecstasy illicit pills among abusers is usual. Thus, quantitative determination of MDMA content of ecstasy illicit pills in illicit drug bazaar must be done regularly to find the most high dose ecstasy illicit pills and removing them from illicit drug bazaar. In the present study, MDMA contents of 13 most abundant ecstasy illicit pills were determined by quantitative thin-layer chromatography (TLC). Two procedures for quantitative determination of MDMA contents of ecstasy illicit pills by TLC were used: densitometric and so-called ‘scraping off’ methods. The former was done in a reflection mode at 285 nm and the latter was done by absorbance measurement of eluted scraped off spots. Limit of detection (LOD), considering signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of 2, and limit of quantification (LOQ), regarding S/N of 10, of densitometric and scraping off methods were 0.40 μg, 1.20 μg, and 6.87 μg, 20.63 μg, respectively. Repeatabilities (within-laboratory error) of densitometric and scraping off methods were 0.5% and 3.6%, respectively. The results showed that the ecstasy illicit pills contained 24–124.5 mg and 23.9–122.2 mg MDMA by densitometric and scraping off methods, respectively.

Keywords::

• MDMA
• ecstasy illicit pills
• TLC
• densitometry
• scraping off

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully thank the Tehran Police Office and Food & Drug Regulatory Office in Ministry of Health and Medical Education for providing ecstasy illicit pills and co-operation in this study. Special thanks to the Research Council of Pivot of Excellency in Toxicology & Food Chemistry of Tehran University of Medical Sciences

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.