Identification and characterization of JWH-122 used as new ingredient in “Spice-like” herbal incenses

Recently, several cases across Germany were reported where teenagers were hospitalized showing severe side effects after consumption of a new “Spice-like” herbal incense called “Lava red”.The active component of “Lava red”, obtained from German internet shops, was isolated by silica gel column chromatography and the structure was elucidated by NMR methods. It is a known N-alkyl-3-(1-naphthoyl)indole (CAS No.: 619294-47-2) JWH-122 which was synthesized recently as model component for in vitro drug testing. The structure is related to compounds that were used two years ago (JWH-018, JWH-073) as synthetic cannabimimetics in similar incense products which are now banned as illegal drugs in Germany and several other European countries. The concentration of JWH-122 was estimated to be 82 mg/g product.The isolated compound was further analyzed by different spectroscopic and mass spectrometry techniques to obtain a complete dataset of the physico-chemical properties of the molecule. The data presented here is useful for easy and fast detection of JWH-122 in trace amounts in complex matrices.