The Quantitation of Heroin and Selected Basic Impurities via Reversed Phase HPLC. II. The Analysis of Adulterated Samples

Abstract

Methodology is presented for the quantitation of heroin, O⁶-monoacetylmorphine, acetylcodeine, noscapine and papaverine in adulterated illicit heroin samples. Reversed phase chromatography was employed using an HS-5 C18 column with a gradient system. This methodology used a multimode detection scheme which consisted of a photodiode array detector in series with a dual electrochemical detector in the parallel mode. Owing to its high specificity for O⁶-monoacetylmorphine, electrochemical detection via the oxidation mode proved necessary for the quantitation of this compound in samples highly adulterated with quinine. The use of relative retention times, UV spectra and dual electrochemical response ratios for the screening of adulterants in heroin is discussed.