Determination of amphetamines in human urine by headspace solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography

Abstract

Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) is under investigation for its usefulness in the determination of a widening variety of volatile and semivolatile analytes in biological fluids and materials. Semivolatiles are increasingly under study as analytical targets, and difficulties with small partition coefficients and long equilibration times have been identified. Amphetamines were selected as semivolatiles exhibiting these limitations and methods to optimize their determination were investigated. A 100-μm polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-coated SPME fiber was used for the extraction of the amphetamines from human urine. Amphetamine determination was made using gas chromatography (GC) with flame-ionization detection (FID). Temperature, time and salt saturation were optimized to obtain consistent extraction. A simple procedure for the analysis of amphetamine (AMP) and methamphetamine (MA) in urine was developed and another for 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA), 3,4-methylenedioxy- N-methamphetamine (MDMA) and 3,4-methylenedioxy- N-ethylamphetamine (MDEA) using headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and GC–FID. Higher recoveries were obtained for amphetamine (19.5–47%) and methamphetamine (20–38.1%) than MDA (5.1–6.6%), MDMA (7–9.6%) and MDEA (5.4–9.6%).