title: Fatal intoxication due to brucine.
abstract: A sensitive method for identifying and quantifying brucine by means of liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry is presented in this article. Based on a solid-phase extraction for human serum, the validation indicated limits of detection and quantification of 0.12 and 0.23 ng/mL, respectively. In one case of lethal suicidal brucine monointoxication, brucine concentrations of 1.51 μg/mL, 1.69 μg/mL, 9.94 μg/mL, 16.4 μg/g, 0.99 μg/g, 0.75 μg/g, and 1.95 mg/g were determined in femoral blood, urine, bile collected from the gallbladder, liver tissue, cerebellum, cerebrum, and stomach contents, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Legal Medicine, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Strasse 1, 30625 Hannover, Germany. teske.joerg@mh-hannover.de
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Teske
authors.forename: Jens-Peter
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Weller
authors.forename: Urs-Vito
authors.initials: UV
authors.lastname: Albrecht
authors.forename: Armin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fieguth
mesh_terms: D003933:Diagnosis; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D057230:Limit of Detection; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011041:Poisoning / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism; D011042:Poisons / Q000378:metabolism / Q000633:toxicity*; D052616:Solid Phase Extraction; D013331:Strychnine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000633:toxicity; D013405:Suicide
chemical_list: D011042:Poisons; C083806:brucine; D013331:Strychnine