Use of unauthorized synthetic drugs is a serious, forensic, regulatory and public health issue. In this scenario, consumption of drug-impregnated blotters is very frequent. For decades, blotters have been generally impregnated with the potent hallucinogen known as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD); however, since 2013 blotter stamps with N-2 methoxybenzyl-substituted phenylethylamine hallucinogen designated as “NBOMes” have been seized in Chile. To address this issue with readily accessible laboratory equipment, we have developed and validated a new HPTLC method for the identification and quantitation of 25-C-NBOMe in seized blotters and its confirmation by GC–MS. The proposed method was validated according to SWGTOX recommendations and is suitable for routine analysis of seized blotters containing 25-C-NBOMe. With the validated method, we analyzed 15 real samples, in all cases finding 25-C-NBOMe in a wide dosage range (701.0–1943.5 µg per blotter). In this situation, we can assume that NBOMes are replacing LSD as the main hallucinogenic drug consumed in blotters in Chile.

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Reactivity of two new C4‐indolyl substituted 1,4‐dihydropyridines (1,4‐DHPs) toward superoxide anion (O2•) in dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) is reported. Reactivity was followed by electrochemical and spectroscopic techniques. Gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry (GC–MS) was used to identify the final products of the reaction. C4 indolyl‐substituted‐1,4‐DHPs reacted toward O2• at significant rates, according to the calculated kinetic rate constants. Results are compared with 4‐phenyl‐DHP and the commercial 1,4‐DHPs, nimodipine, nisoldipine, and amlodipine. Indolyl‐substituted 1,4‐DHPs were more reactive than the commercial derivatives. The direct participation of proton of the 1‐position of the secondary amine in the quenching of O2• was demonstrated. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Within the past 50 years, several mummies have been found in the Andean region of South America at altitudes between 5.200 and 6.700 meters above sea level.All of these human remains belong to the Inca civilization and date from approximately 1.475 A.D. to 1.540 A.D. (Horne, 1996). In 1954 the first of these corpses, a well preserved freeze dried body of an eight-to-nine-year-old Inca prince (Fig. 1),was discovered at 5.400 meters on Cerro El Plomo, a mountain peak some 45 km. east of Santiago, and described the presence of Papilloma virus in two verrucae on one of the child’s hand (Horne & Quevedo, 1984). In this paper we present the results of recent radiological (computerized imaging), molecular and chemical investigations.

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