Isolation and purification of heroin from heroin street samples by preparative high performance liquid chromatography

The present study established a novel method using preparative high performance liquid chromatography to isolate and purify heroin·HCl from heroin street samples to be used as a reference standard. Different kinds of mobile phases and columns were used, ultimately the mobile phase consisting of hexane–isopropanol–methanol (65:28:7, v/v) and the SIL preparative column prepared in laboratory were selected as the final condition. Heroin was further purified by the drowning-out crystallization method using isopropanol–methanol (50:1, v/v) and hexane as drowning-out anti-solvents and salting-out agents, respectively. The purity was assessed by analytical high performance liquid chromatography and the confirmation of the chemical structure was performed by IR and NMR. About 110.7 mg of heroin·HCl at a purity of over 99.52% was obtained from 180 mg of heroin street samples which contained 156.15 mg of heroin·HCl component by preparative high performance liquid chromatography. This method is suitable for preparing heroin standards in forensic science area.