HYDROLYSIS OF CARBON-LABELED COCAINE IN HUMAN-SERUM

Abstract

Hydrolysis of 14C-cocaine in human serum, separation of the metabolites on TLC, and subsequent identification on GLC is described. At 1 h, 20% of the cocaine was metabolized to benzoylecgonine, ecgonine and ecgonine methyl ester. At this time interval the highest percent of product was in the form of the ecgonine methyl ester, a metabolite not previously reported in humans. After 4 h, 67% of the cocaine was hydrolyzed; of this, 45% was benzoylecgonine and ecgonine in a ratio of 1.6 to 1. The half-life for cocaine hydrolyzed in human serum was approximately 2.5 h.