Simple and reliable high-performance liquid chromatography fluorimetric procedure for the determination of amphetamine-derived designer drugs

The paper describes a HPLC–fluorimetric procedure for the determination of methylenedioxyamphetamine, methylenedioxymethamphetamine, methylenedioxyethamphetamine and N-methyl-1-(1,3-benzodioxol-5-yl)-2-butanamine in urine, serum, saliva and street samples, that features interesting advantages over other procedures previously described. The method requires a very small sample volume (100 μl) and no extraction, lacks matrix effect, and is not time consuming. Linearity was in the range 50–1000 ng/ml regardless of matrix. Sensitivity and detection limit were 50 ng/ml and 10 ng/ml, respectively, but they may reach 10 ng/ml and 2 ng/ml if a slight modification is introduced in the procedure. Intra- and inter-day precision were always within 5% and 8%, respectively. Recovery was satisfactory for all matrices. The described procedure could be successfully used for clinical, epidemiological and forensic applications.