Application of a nucleophilic substitution rection for spectrofluorimetric quantification of ketamine in pharmaceutical and plasma matrices.
Scientific reports – December 30, 2024
Source: PubMed
Summary
Scientists have developed a breakthrough eco-friendly method to detect ketamine, also known as "Super K" - a medication that's increasingly misused as a date-rape drug. This new testing approach uses fluorescent technology to identify even tiny amounts of ketamine in blood and medicine samples. The method is remarkably accurate, environmentally safe, and can detect concentrations as low as 2.37 ng/mL.
Abstract
Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic drug that is abused by teenagers and young adults, commonly for recreational purposes in dance clubs, to generate euphoria and dissociation, and sometimes employed as a date-rape drug. Herein, a highly sensitive, and environmentally friendly spectrofluorimetric method was developed for detection of ketamine in pharmaceutical and plasma samples. The technique is based on a nucleophilic substitution reaction occurring between ketamine and NBD-Cl (4-chloro-7-nitrobenzo-2-oxa-1,3-diazole), resulting in the formation of a fluorescent derivative that exhibits detectability at a remarkable level. The resultant derivative demonstrates its maximum emission intensity at 543 nm upon excitation at a wavelength of 481 nm. Upon optimizing the reaction parameters, a linear relationship was established between the fluorescence intensity of the formed derivative and the concentrations of ketamine within the specified range of 10 - 250 ng/mL. The method demonstrated exceptional sensitivity with detection and quantitation limits of 2.37 ng/mL and 7.18 ng/mL, respectively, allowing for the detection of ketamine in both pharmaceutical and plasma samples. The method was precise (%RSD < 1) accurate (%R = 99.74%) and robust (% R ± SD from 98.00 ± 1.11 to 99.97 ± 0.75). Furthermore, the developed method was compared to the reported method, with the results indicating that the suggested method is more sensitive and ecologically benign.