Rapid simultaneous determination of ephedrines, amphetamines, cocaine, cocaine metabolites, and opiates in human urine by GC–MS

This paper presents a simple and sensitive chromatographic procedure for the simultaneous determination and quantification of ephedrines, amphetamines, cocaine, cocaine metabolites, and opiates in human urine by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. This method involves enzyme hydrolysis in the presence of a deuterated internal standard, liquid–liquid extraction, and derivatization with pentafluoropropionic anhydride and pentafluoropropanol. The recovery of each compound averaged at 65.8% or more. The limits of detection determined for each compound by using a 2-mL sample volume ranged from 5 to 50 ng/mL. The calibration curves were linear to 1000 ng/mL for all compounds when determined using methamphetamine-d4 and MDMA-d5 as internal standards. This method was successfully applied for the analysis of urine samples suspected to contain intoxicants such as methamphetamine and heroin.