Abstract
Khat, the leaves of Catha edulis Forsk., is widely used as a “natural amphetamine” in East Africa and the Arab Peninsula. In recent years, air-transported khat appeared on local khat markets in Europe (e.g. France, Italy, Great Britain). Due to increasing seizures of khat imported by ethnic communities and emigrants the psychoactive drug has been banned in 1992 by the Swiss Health Authorities. The demand for monitoring the psychotropic potential of the illicit drug made it necessary to establish specific, sensitive and rapid methods for the determination of the alkaloids, mainly the psychoactive principle S-(−)-cathinone. The S-(−)-cathinone concentration measured by high-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection (HPLC-DAD) and alternatively by instrumental thin-layer chromatography (TLC) varied between 2182 and 4506 μg/g dried material. It is typical for khat originating from Kenya and demonstrates its high psychoactivity. The S,S-(+)-norpseudoephedrine and R,S-(−)-norephedrine content ranged from 2114 to 4094 and 192 to 1345 μg/g, respectively.
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