Profiling of new psychoactive substances by using stable isotope ratio mass spectrometry: Study of the synthetic cannabinoid 5F-PB-22

S Münster-Müller; N Scheid; T Holdermann; S Schneiders; M Pütz

doi:10.1002/dta.2407

Profiling of new psychoactive substances by using stable isotope ratio mass spectrometry: Study of the synthetic cannabinoid 5F-PB-22

Drug Test Anal. 2018 May 21. doi: 10.1002/dta.2407. Online ahead of print.

Authors

S Münster-Müller¹, N Scheid¹, T Holdermann¹, S Schneiders¹, M Pütz¹

Affiliation

¹ Bundeskriminalamt (Federal Criminal Police Office), Forensic Science Institute, Wiesbaden, Germany.

PMID: 29782704
DOI: 10.1002/dta.2407

Abstract

In this paper, the results of a pilot study on the profiling of the synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonist 5F-PB-22 (5F-QUPIC, pentylfluoro-1H-indole-3-carboxylic acid-8-quinolinyl ester) via isotope ratio mass spectrometry are presented. It focuses on δ¹³ C, δ¹⁵ N and δ² H isotope ratios, which are determined using elemental analyser (EA) and high temperature elemental analyser (TC/EA) coupled to an isotope ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS). By means of a sample of pure material of 5F-PB-22, it is shown that the extraction of 5F-PB-22 from herbal material, a rapid clean-up procedure, or preparative column chromatography had no influence on the isotope ratios. Furthermore, 5F-PB-22 was extracted from 14 different herbal blend samples ("Spice products" from police seizures) and analysed via IRMS, yielding 3 clusters containing 7, 5, and 2 samples, distinguishable through their isotopic composition, respectively. It is assumed that herbal blends in each cluster have been manufactured from individual batches of 5F-PB-22.

Keywords: 5F-PB-22; EA-IRMS; drug profiling; new psychoactive substances (NPS); stable isotope ratio analysis.