Investigating the presence of a common drug of abuse (benzhexol) in hair; the Jordanian experience.
The analysis of hair is now accepted as a recognised alternative method for the determination of drug misuse. It has several advantages over the biological fluids; blood and urine, including collection of information regarding long-term drug use and determination of compliance with treatment programmes. In Jordan, the abuse of Artane (benzhexol hydrochloride) has been recognised as the most commonly abused drug among Jordanian youths. Hair samples were collected from nine patients (Male 25-55 years, M=39.11, SD=10.53, CV=26.93%). Samples were analysed for the presence of benzhexol and the toxicological analysis revealed the presence of benzhexol in all samples and its concentration ranged from 0.104 to 7.81 ng/mg hair. Solid phase extraction and GC-MS on selective ion storage (SIS) were used for extraction and detection of the drug with papaverine as external standard. The mass detector was operated at selective ion storage (SIS) to monitor the m/z of 98 and 218 for benzhexol and m/z 339 and 324 for the papaverine. The retention times of benzhexol and papaverine were 6.77 and 12.48 min, respectively. The method was linear in the range of 0.5 to 40 ng/mg hair, with a mean coefficient of determination (R2=0.9982). The limit of detection was 0.04 ng/mg. The intra- and inter-day variations were 3.85% and 3.35%. Recovery was found to be above 90%.
Senior Forensic Chemist, Police Forensic Science Laboratory/Public Security Directorate, Amman 11942, Jordan.
Thair
T
Suleiman AL-Nsour
Kamal A
KA
Hadidi