Chemical profiling of ecstasy recovered from around Jakarta by High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography (HPTLC)-densitometry

In the current study, we identify the use of HPTLC-densitometry and cluster analysis of major substances in profiling seized ecstasy tablets from around Jakarta. One hundred milligrams of a homogenized drug sample was dissolved in 5 ml of pH 10.5 phosphate buffer solution and extracted with 1 ml toluene. The two micro litter of extract spotted on two HPTLC Si GF 254 (20 × 10 cm) plates, then eluted on twin chamber with TB (cyclohexane:toluene:diethylamine 75 + 15 + 5 v/v) and TAEA (toluene:acetone-ethanol:conc.ammonia, 45 + 45 + 7 + 3 v/v) separately. The spots were scanned by TLC-Scanner 3 Camag at 210 nm. The UV-in situ spectrum of each peaks was scanned at 190–400 nm. Corrected hRf-value (hRfc) and insitu spectrum of chromatogram were used to confirm the identity of unknown drugs. Clustering of chromatograms of extracted ecstasy samples was based on their hRfc and AUC of peak. This method was best implemented for street drug identification and grouping a sample into a cluster based on their chemical characteristic.