New psychoactive substances of natural origin, mainly alkaloids from Asian and South American plants, typically have stimulant or hallucinogenic effects, with a few having sedative properties. Information on analytical identification of these substances in plant material is scarce, and there is little data on their characterization and quantification in biological matrices from intoxication or fatality cases. Their metabolism is not fully investigated, making identification infrequent and metabolites often unknown.
Synthetic tryptamines like 4-AcO-DiPT are increasingly involved in intoxications and fatalities yet remain unregulated in many countries, with little known about how the body processes them. Using human liver cells and high-resolution mass spectrometry, researchers identified six metabolites formed after three hours of incubation. The main transformation was ester hydrolysis to 4-OH-DiPT, followed by glucuronidation, sulfation, N-oxidation, and N-dealkylation. The most abundant second-generation metabolites were 4-OH-iPT-sulfate and 4-OH-DiPT-glucuronide. The authors suggest that 4-OH-DiPT, 4-OH-iPT, and 4-OH-DiPT-N-oxide are the best biomarkers to detect 4-AcO-DiPT consumption.