Effects of temperature, humidity, light, and soil on drug stability in hair: a preliminary study for estimating personal profiles using micro-segmental analysis of corpse hair

Abstract

Purpose Micro-segmental hair analysis (MSA), which enables detailed measurement of the distribution of drugs in a single hair strand, is useful for examining the day of death and drug use history of a person. However, corpses are often found in severe environments, such as soil and freezers, which affect the drug contents in hair. Therefore, we examined the effects of temperature, humidity, light, and soil on drug stability in hair as a preliminary study to estimate personal profiles using MSA of corpse hair. Methods Four hay-fever medicines (fexofenadine, epinastine, cetirizine, and desloratadine) were used as model drugs to evaluate drug stability in hair. Reference hair strands consistently containing the four medicines along the hair shaft were collected from patients with hay-fever who ingested the medicines daily for 4 months. The hair strands were placed in chambers with controlled temperatures (− 30 to 60 °C) and relative humidities (ca. 18 % and > 90 %), exposed to light (sunlight and artificial lights) or buried in soil (natural soil and compost). Results Sunlight and soil greatly decomposed the hair surfaces and decreased the drug contents in hair (up to 37 %). However, all analytes were successfully detected along the hair shaft, reflecting the intake history, even when the hair was exposed to sunlight for 2 weeks and buried in the soil for 2 months. Conclusions Although the exposure to sunlight and storage in soil for long times made drug-distribution analysis difficult, MSA could be applied even to hair strands collected from corpses left in severe environments.