Microextraction by Packed Sorbent as a Clean-up Approach for the Determination of Ketamine and Norketamine in Hair by Gas Chromatography--Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

The use of NPS has been increasing and constitutes a social and public health problem, hence toxicological analysis become of utmost importance for the detection of such substances. In this paper, we present the development and full validation of a simple, user and environmentally friendly, cheap, and suitable method for the determination of ketamine and its main metabolite norketamine in hair samples. The procedure included using a miniaturized procedure – microextraction by packed sorbent with mixed-mode sorbent – for sample clean up. Organic solvents use was minimal, and it was possible to obtain a linear method (0.05–10 ng/mg for both analytes). Extraction efficiency ranged from 32 to 61 %, which did not impair sensitivity. The method proved to be selective, precise, accurate and suitable for routine analysis for the determination of said compounds in 50 mg hair samples.