The definition New psychoactive substances (NPS) refers to emerging drugs whose chemical structures are similar to other psychoactive compounds but not identical, representing a “legal” alternative to internationally controlled drugs. There are many categories of NPS, such as synthetic cannabinoids, synthetic cathinones, phenylethylamines, piperazines, ketamine derivatives and tryptamines. Tryptamines are naturally occurring compounds, which can derive from the amino acid tryptophan by several biosynthetic pathways: their structure is a combination of a benzene ring and a pyrrole ring, with the addition of a 2-carbon side chain. Tryptamines include serotonin and melatonin as well as other compounds known for their hallucinogenic properties, such as psilocybin in ‘Magic mushrooms’ and dimethyltryptamine (DMT) in Ayahuasca brews.Aim: To review the scientific literature regarding tryptamines and their derivatives, providing a summary of all the available information about the structure of these compounds, their effects in relationship with the routes of administration, their pharmacology and toxicity, including articles reporting cases of death related to intake of these substances.Methods: A comprehensive review of the published scientific literature was performed, using also non peer-reviewed information sources, such as books, government publications and drug user web fora.Conclusions: Information from Internet and from published scientific literature, organized in the way we proposed in this review, provides an effective tool for specialists facing the emerging NPS threat to public health and public security, including the personnel working in Emergency Department.
Surface analysis techniques have rapidly evolved in the last decade. Some of these are already routinely used in forensics, such as for the detection of gunshot residue or for glass analysis. Some surface analysis approaches are attractive for their portability to the crime scene. Others can be very helpful in forensic laboratories owing to their high spatial resolution, analyte coverage, speed, and specificity. Despite this, many proposed applications of the techniques have not yet led to operational deployment. Here, we explore the application of these techniques to the most important traces commonly found in forensic casework. We highlight where there is potential to add value and outline the progress that is needed to achieve operational deployment. We consider within the scope of this review surface mass spectrometry, surface spectroscopy, and surface X-ray spectrometry. We show how these tools show great promise for the analysis of fingerprints, hair, drugs, explosives, and microtraces. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Analytical Chemistry Volume 15 is June 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is a strong oxidizing agent often used in hair coloring and as a component in disinfecting and bleaching processes. Exposures to H2O2 generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) that can cause significant airway irritation and inflammation. Even though workers have reported symptoms associated with sensitivity and irritation from acute exposures below the H2O2 occupational exposure levels (OELs), a lack of sensitive analytical methods for measuring airborne concentrations currently prevents evaluating low or peak H2O2 exposures. To fill these gaps, we propose two different sensitive approaches: (i) luminol chemiluminescence (CL) to specifically measure H2O2; and (ii) photonic sensor method based on the ferrous-xylenol orange assay to evaluate total oxidative potential (OP), a measure of ROS in sampled air. We chose two exposure scenarios: hairdressers preparing and applying hair color to clients (both in simulated and field environments) and workers operating disinfecting cycles at a bottling company. Hair coloring took about 1 h for each client, and the application of the coloring product generated the highest H2O2 concentrations. OP values were highly correlated with H2O2 concentrations (CL measurement) and allowed peak measurements as low as 6 µg m-3 of H2O2 concentrations. The bottling company used a disinfectant containing H2O2, acetic acid and peracetic acid (PAA) in an enclosed process. The photonic sensor was immediately saturated. The CL results showed that the process operator had the highest exposures during a 15-min cycle. There is still a need to develop these direct reading methods for operating in the field, but we believe that in the future an OEL for OP could protect workers from developing airway irritation and inflammation by reducing exposures to oxidizing chemicals.
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