title: Analysis and characterization of the novel psychoactive drug 4-chloromethcathinone (clephedrone).
abstract: Novel psychoactive drugs, such as amphetamine-, cathinone-, benzofury- and tryptamine derivatives, gained high popularity on the global drug market in the last years. These drugs are sold via the Internet as for example "research chemicals", "room odorizers" or "lawn fertilizers" by different online suppliers. They are also known as "Legal Highs", among them, cathinone derivatives play an important role. Well known substituted cathinone derivatives are mephedrone, brephedrone and flephedrone. Since a couple of weeks, a chlorine substituted methcathinone derivative, namely clephedrone (4-chloromethcathinone), is commercially available via the Internet from www.deboralabs.com. The goal of this study was to confirm identity of this substance, which was done successfully by GC-MS and NMR. Since all cathinone derivatives are chiral, it was found out, whether the purchased sample was present as a racemic mixture. For this purpose, methods for enantioseparation by GC and CE were developed and applied successfully. In case of CE a chiral selector was added, whereas chiral separation with GC-MS was done indirectly, after derivatization of clephedrone with trifluoroacetyl-l-prolyl chloride.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Karl-Franzens-University Graz, Universitätsplatz 1, A-8010 Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Magdalena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Taschwer
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Karl-Franzens-University Graz, Universitätsplatz 1, A-8010 Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Jennifer A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Weiß
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Karl-Franzens-University Graz, Universitätsplatz 1, A-8010 Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Olaf
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kunert
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Karl-Franzens-University Graz, Universitätsplatz 1, A-8010 Graz, Austria. Electronic address: martin.schmid@uni-graz.at.
authors.forename: Martin G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Schmid
mesh_terms: D019075:Electrophoresis, Capillary; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D013287:Illicit Drugs / Q000737:chemistry*; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D008744:Methylamines / Q000737:chemistry*; D011427:Propiophenones / Q000737:chemistry*; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D013287:Illicit Drugs; D008744:Methylamines; D011427:Propiophenones; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs; C000602662:clephedrone
keywords: 4-Chloromethcathinone; Cathinones; Clephedrone; Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS)