Simultaneous chiral separation of 3,4‐methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), 3‐4‐methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA), 3,4‐methylenedioxyethylamphetamine (MDE), ephedrine, amphetamine and methamphetamine by capillary electrophoresis in uncoated and coated capillaries with native β‐cyclodextrin as the chiral selector: Preliminary application to the analysis of urine and hair
Electrophoresis January 1, 1998 Franco Tagliaro, Giulia Manetto, Silvana Bellini et al. 74 citations
A capillary electrophoresis method using native β-cyclodextrin as a chiral selector simultaneously separates and detects the enantiomers of six amphetamine-related substances: ephedrine, amphetamine, methamphetamine, MDMA, MDA, and MDE. Optimized conditions (pH 2.5 phosphate buffer, uncoated capillary, 10 kV) achieve good resolution and chiral selectivity for all analytes. Detection limits are better than 0.2 μg/mL, with high precision (intra-day migration time relative standard deviation < 0.8%) and linearity from 0.156 to 40 μg/mL. After liquid-liquid extraction, urine samples can be analyzed below the 500 ng/mL NIDA cut-off. For hair samples, field-amplified sample stacking enables chiral determination of MDMA, MDA, and MDE at concentrations found in real ecstasy users.