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Volume 4 Toxicology: Open Access
ISSN: 2476-2067 Toxicology Congress 2018
March 12-14, 2018
March 12-14, 2018 Singapore
14th World Congress on
Toxicology and Pharmacology
Development of a screening kit for detecting synthetic cathinones
Yuki Mukai, Fujio Ishizawa, Hiroko Masuda, Hisanori Muramatsu and Katsuya Honda
University of Tsukuba, Japan
In recent years, abuse of illicit drug has been a very important problem.
Significant amount of unknown illicit substances are sized by law
enforcement and boarder protection agencies. Synthetic cannabinoids and
cathinones have a psychoactive effect on our bodies. The identification of
these drugs is important not only for the proof of the crime, but also human
health. Generally, to identify the illicit drugs, we use the techniques such
as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and high performance
liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS). These instruments,
however, are not always convenient owing to their high cost of running, the
need for trained personnel, lengthy analysis times, etc. Screening kits for detecting drugs, therefore, are required at the scene of
crime and the development of them is desired. In this study, we have designed the screening kit for cathinones to provide easily
an indication of the presence or absence of cathinones in a test sample. This kit consists of a glass tube enclosed reagents which
react with them (named “cathinone detector tube”). This kit utilizes the reaction of cathinons with neocuproine and copper(II)
to give a colored copper(I)-neocuproine complex. The presumptive color test method for the detection of synthetic cathinones
by Morgan Philip, et al. is applied to the development of this screening kit. They describe that nepcuproine color test displays
good selectivity to cathinone analogs. To improve operativity and preservation of our kit, three aqueous solutions were coated
on silica gel particle and then the powders have been enclosed in a single glass tube. The reagent in the tube colored orange
from light blue in the presence of cathinones. In consequence, this kit had very high sensitivity for detecting cathinones. The
limit of detection of α-PVP, for example, was 5 µg (absolute amount, 100 µL of 50 µg/mL solution).
References
1. Morgan Philip, Ronald Shimmon, Mark Tahtouh, Shanlin Fu (2016) Development and validation of a presumptive color test
method for the detection synthetic cathinones in seized illicit materials. Forensic Chem; 1: 39-50.
Biography
Yuki Mukai is currently a Masters student at University of Tsukuba, Japan. She belongs to Department of Legal Medicine and interested in drug abuse that is social
problem in the world, especially in synthetic cannabinoids and cathinones. She has recently developed a screening kit for detecting synthetic cathinones.
Yuki Mukai et al., Toxicol Open Access 2018, Volume 4
DOI: 10.4172/2476-2067-C1-006
Figure-1: Cathinone detector tube. Approximately 100 uL
of a test solution is sucked into the detector tube. Upper one
is positive control. Orange color appeared in the presence of
cathinones.