Green liquid-liquid microextraction for quantification of ketamine and metabolites in human urine by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.
Journal of analytical toxicology May 16, 2025 Hsueh-Hui Yang, Chia-Sui Kao, Ahai C Lua et al. 2 citations
A green method using liquid-liquid microextraction with 1-undecanol and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry detected ketamine and its metabolites in human urine without derivatization. Detection limits were 1.0 ng/mL for ketamine, 1.5 ng/mL for norketamine, and 1.7 ng/mL for dehydronorketamine. Analysis of eight real urine samples from drug abusers showed acceptable accuracy and precision. The findings suggest that detecting dehydronorketamine may be more suitable than detecting norketamine or ketamine for judging ketamine abuse. The method is simple, fast, and uses little solvent, addressing the need for green analytical techniques in toxicology.