title: Screening approach by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for the blood quantification of thirty-four toxic principles of plant origin. Application to forensic toxicology.
abstract: Plant poisonings have left their mark on history and still cause many deaths, whether intentional or accidental. The means to show toxicological evidence of such poisonings should be implemented with great care. This article presents a technique for measuring thirty-nine toxic principles of plant origin in the blood, covering a large amount of toxins from local or exotic plants: α-lobeline, α-solanine, aconitine, ajmaline, atropine, brucine, cephalomannine, colchicine, convallatoxin, cymarine, cytisine, digitoxin, digoxin, emetine, gelsemine, ibogaine, jervine, kavain, lanatoside C, lupanine, mitragynine, neriifolin, oleandrin, ouabain, paclitaxel, physostigmine, pilocarpine, podophyllotoxin, proscillaridin A, reserpine, retrorsine, ricinine, scopolamine, senecionine, sparteine, strophanthidin, strychnine, veratridine and yohimbine. Analysis was carried out using an original ultra-high performance liquid chromatography separation coupled with tandem mass spectrometry detection. Extraction was a standard solid phase extraction performed on Oasis(®) HLB cartridge. Thirty-four of the thirty-nine compounds were put through a validation procedure. The assay was linear in the calibration curve range from 0.5 or 5 μg/L to 1000 μg/L according to the compounds. The method is sensitive (LOD from 0.1 to 1.6 μg/L). The within-day precision of the assay was less than 22.5% at the LLOQ, and the between-day precision was less than 21.5% for 10 μg/L for all the compounds included. The assay accuracy was in the range of 87.4 to 119.8% for the LLOQ. The extraction recovery and matrix effect ranged from 30 to 106% and from -30 to 14%, respectively. It has proven useful and effective in several difficult forensic cases.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire LAT LUMTOX, 800 av. Marie Curie Z.I. Jean Jaurès, 07800 La Voulte-sur-Rhône, France; Ecole Doctorale Interdisciplinaire Sciences-Santé, Université Claude Bernard, Hôpital Louis Pradel, 28 av. du Doyen Lépine, 69677 Bron, France. Electronic address: j.carlier@latlumtox.com.
authors.forename: Jérémy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Carlier
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de toxicologie, Faculté de pharmacie de Lyon, 8 av. Rockefeller, 69373 Lyon, France; Laboratoire de pharmacologie-toxicologie, Centre Hospitalier Lyon Sud, Hospices Civils de Lyon, 165 chemin du Grand Revoyet, 69495 Pierre-Bénite, France.
authors.forename: Jérôme
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Guitton
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire LAT LUMTOX, 800 av. Marie Curie Z.I. Jean Jaurès, 07800 La Voulte-sur-Rhône, France.
authors.forename: Ludovic
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Romeuf
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire LAT LUMTOX, 71 av. Rockefeller, 69003 Lyon, France.
authors.forename: Fabien
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bévalot
authors.affiliation: Institut Médico-Légal, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Clermont-Ferrand, 58 rue Montalembert, 63003 Clermont-Ferrand, France.
authors.forename: Baptiste
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Boyer
authors.affiliation: Institut médico-légal, Faculté de médecine, 12 av. Rockefeller, 69008 Lyon, France.
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fanton
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire LAT LUMTOX, 800 av. Marie Curie Z.I. Jean Jaurès, 07800 La Voulte-sur-Rhône, France.
authors.forename: Yvan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gaillard
mesh_terms: D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D053593:Forensic Toxicology / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D057230:Limit of Detection; D010944:Plants / Q000737:chemistry*; D052616:Solid Phase Extraction / Q000379:methods; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D014118:Toxins, Biological / Q000097:blood* / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D014118:Toxins, Biological
keywords: Forensic toxicology; Multiresidue screening; Toxic plants; Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC–MS/MS)