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Development and validation of an automated liquid-liquid extraction GC/MS method for the determination of THC, 11-OH-THC, and free THC-carboxylic acid (THC-COOH) from blood serum

  • The analysis of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and its metabolites 11-hydroxy-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (11-OH-THC), and 11-nor-9-carboxy-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC-COOH) from blood serum is a routine task in forensic toxicology laboratories. For examination of consumption habits, the concentration of the phase I metabolite THC-COOH is used. Recommendations for interpretation of analysis values in medical-psychological assessments (regranting of driver’s licenses, Germany) include threshold values for the free, unconjugated THC-COOH. Using a fully automated two-step liquid-liquid extraction, THC, 11-OH-THC, and free, unconjugated THC-COOH were extracted from blood serum, silylated with N-methyl-N-(trimethylsilyl) trifluoroacetamide (MSTFA), and analyzed by GC/MS. The automation was carried out by an x-y-z sample robot equipped with modules for shaking, centrifugation, and solvent evaporation. This method was based on a previously developed manual sample preparation method. Validation guidelines of the Society of Toxicological and Forensic Chemistry (GTFCh) were fulfilled for both methods, at which the focus of this article is the automated one. Limits of detection and quantification for THC were 0.3 and 0.6 μg/L, for 11-OH-THC were 0.1 and 0.8 μg/L, and for THC-COOH were 0.3 and 1.1 μg/L, when extracting only 0.5 mL of blood serum. Therefore, the required limit of quantification for THC of 1 μg/L in driving under the influence of cannabis cases in Germany (and other countries) can be reached and the method can be employed in that context. Real and external control samples were analyzed, and a round robin test was passed successfully. To date, the method is employed in the Institute of Legal Medicine in Giessen, Germany, in daily routine. Automation helps in avoiding errors during sample preparation and reduces the workload of the laboratory personnel. Due to its flexibility, the analysis system can be employed for other liquid-liquid extractions as well. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first publication on a comprehensively automated classical liquid-liquid extraction workflow in the field of forensic toxicological analysis.

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Metadaten
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Author:Kirsten Purschke, Sonja Heinl, Oliver Lerch, Freidoon Erdmann, Florian Veit
Parent Title (English):Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry
Volume:408
Issue:16
First Page:4379
Last Page:4388
ISSN:1618-2642
URN:urn:nbn:de:hbz:1044-opus-24316
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-016-9537-5
PMID:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27116418
Publisher:Springer
Place of publication:Berlin, Heidelberg
Publishing Institution:Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg
Date of first publication:2016/04/26
Copyright:(c) The Author(s) 2016. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Keyword:Automation; Cannabinoids; GC/MS; Liquid-liquid extraction (LLE); Unconjugated THC-COOH
Departments, institutes and facilities:Fachbereich Angewandte Naturwissenschaften
Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC):5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 54 Chemie / 540 Chemie und zugeordnete Wissenschaften
Entry in this database:2016/05/12
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - CC BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International