Screening Method for Five Commonly Used Amphetamines in Urine by NMR Spectroscopy

In the recent years the so-called designer drugs have been diffused
dramatically worldwide. Amphetamine psychostimulants are one of the major
classesofillicitdrugsconsumedforrecreationalpurposesintheworld.Thedetection
of the illegal substances is important both in the management of their misuse and in
the forensic field. Urine matrix is a reliable biological matrix for verifying
amphetamines intake in the short and medium term because the excretion of these
drugs mainly occurs in urine, where substantial amounts of unchanged drug are
present. In response to a growing demand for reliable evidence of amphetamine
use,amethodforidentificationandquantitationofamphetamine,methamphetamine,
3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine,
3,4-methylenedioxy-N-ethylamphetamine in urine has been developed by nuclear
magnetic resonance spectroscopy, using electronic reference to access in vivo concentration
method. The method showed good linearity. The limits of detection and
quantitation of amphetamines analyzed ranging from 1.9–7.9 to 5.8–23.8lgmL-1,
respectively. These data demonstrate that the present method issuitable for detection
of these drugs in urine samples, allowing to quanti tate the target analytes without any
purification step of the matrix.