Abstract
Salvia divinorum (Lamiaceae) is a herb native to Mexico where it is used by Mazatec shamans for spiritual and divination purposes. S. divinorum products are easily available to consumers and are used worldwide as legal highs because of the hallucinogenic effects caused mainly by salvinorin A. Highly popular videos and websites on the internet depicting the use of S. divinorum products have contributed to an increase in their consumption. Recent reports have highlighted the potential of these products to induce psychosis in consumers. In Mexico, dried leaf extracts of S. divinorum are sold in different strengths, claiming to correlate with increasing amounts of salvinorin A. In order to determine the variability of salvinorin A content between brands and to investigate possible correlation between brand strengths, this study sought to quantify salvinorin A in commercial products available in Mexico using an HPLC method. The HPLC analytical method showed a correlation coefficient R2>0.99, with LOD of 0.44μg/mL and LOQ of 1.34μg/mL. The retention time for salvinorin A was 23.09±0.95min and the measured concentrations ranged between 8.32±0.65 and 56.52±3.77mg/g dried leaf. The results for brand c did not show an agreement between the declared and the calculated amount of salvinorin A. Additionally, the emergence in Mexico of high strength salvia products (100×), the lack of regulation and the observed variability of salvinorin A content between brands of commercial legal highs products of S. divinorum could result in a health problem for consumers.
Highlights
In recent years, the use of a group of substances legally sold and intended to induce behavioural effects similar to illegal substances, known as legal highs, has been popularized [1]
3.1 Validation of the HPLC method The intraday precision was calculated by comparing the Coefficient of Variation (CV) obtained after three injections of salvinorin A in a single day for 100, 25 and 6.25 μg/mL, resulting in CVs of 4.75, 0.34 and 1.09 %, respectively
The variability of 1.76%, for the HPLC method can be considered acceptable since variability smaller than 3% is required for a method to be accepted as precise [26]
Summary
The use of a group of substances legally sold and intended to induce behavioural effects similar to illegal substances, known as legal highs, has been popularized [1]. These new psychoactive substances, are known as designer drugs, herbal highs or research chemicals and they can be of synthetic or natural origin [2,3]. Salvia divinorum Epling and Játiva-M (Lamiaceae) is a shrub endemic in Oaxaca, Mexico It has been used by Mazatec shamans as part of spiritual and divination rituals because of its well documented hallucinogenic effects. Contrary to other commonly used hallucinogens, salvinorin A has not been reported to have agonostic effects on 5HT, CB1, CB2, NMDA and muscarinic receptors [17]
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