Bell S E, Burns D T, Dennis A C, Matchett L J, Speers J S
School of Chemistry, Queen's University of Belfast, UK.
Analyst. 2000 Oct;125(10):1811-5. doi: 10.1039/b005662f.
Raman spectroscopy with far-red excitation has been investigated as a simple and rapid technique for composition profiling of seized ecstasy (MDMA, N-methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine) tablets. The spectra obtained are rich in vibrational bands and allow the active drug and excipient used to bulk the tablets to be identified. Relative band heights can be used to determine drug/excipient ratios and the degree of hydration of the drug while the fact that 50 tablets per hour can be analysed allows large numbers of spectra to be recorded. The ability of Raman spectroscopy to distinguish between ecstasy tablets on the basis of their chemical composition is illustrated here by a sample set of 400 tablets taken from a large seizure of > 50,000 tablets that were found in eight large bags. The tablets are all similar in appearance and carry the same logo. Conventional analysis by GC-MS showed they contained MDMA. Initial Raman studies of samples from each of the eight bags showed that despite some tablet-to-tablet variation within each bag the contents could be classified on the basis of the excipients used. The tablets in five of the bags were sorbitol-based, two were cellulose-based and one bag contained tablets with a glucose excipient. More extensive analysis of 50 tablets from each of a representative series of sample bags have distribution profiles that showed the contents of each bag were approximately normally distributed about a mean value, rather than being mixtures of several discrete types. Two of the sorbitol-containing sample sets were indistinguishable while a third was similar but not identical to these, in that it contained the same excipient and MDMA with the same degree of hydration but had a slightly different MDMA/sorbitol ratio. The cellulose-based samples were badly manufactured and showed considerable tablet-to-tablet variation in their drug/excipient ratio while the glucose-based tablets had a tight distribution in their drug/excipient ratios. The degree of hydration in the MDMA feedstocks used to manufacture the cellulose-, glucose- and sorbitol-based tablets were all different from each other. This study, because it centres on a single seizure of physically similar tablets with the same active drug, highlights the fact that simple physical descriptions coupled with active drug content do not in themselves fully characterize the nature of the seized materials. There is considerable variation in the composition of the tablets within this single seizure and the fact that this variation can be detected from Raman spectra demonstrates that the potential benefits of obtaining highly detailed spectra can indeed translate into information that is not readily available from other methods but would be useful for tracing of drug distribution networks.
远红激发拉曼光谱已被研究作为一种简单快速的技术，用于对查获的摇头丸（3,4－亚甲基二氧甲基苯丙胺，MDMA）片剂进行成分分析。所获得的光谱富含振动带，能够识别活性药物以及用于填充片剂的辅料。相对谱带高度可用于确定药物/辅料比例以及药物的水合程度，而且每小时可分析50片，这使得能够记录大量光谱。本文通过从一次查获的超过50,000片摇头丸中抽取的400片样品集，展示了拉曼光谱基于化学成分区分摇头丸片剂的能力。这些片剂外观均相似且带有相同标识。气相色谱 - 质谱联用（GC - MS）的常规分析表明它们含有MDMA。对来自八个袋子中每个袋子的样品进行的初步拉曼研究表明，尽管每个袋子内片剂之间存在一些差异，但仍可根据所使用的辅料对其内容物进行分类。五个袋子中的片剂以山梨醇为基础，两个以纤维素为基础，一个袋子中的片剂含有葡萄糖辅料。对一系列代表性样品袋中每个袋子的50片片剂进行更广泛的分析，其分布曲线表明每个袋子中的内容物围绕一个平均值大致呈正态分布，而不是几种离散类型的混合物。两组含山梨醇的样品无法区分，而第三组与之相似但不完全相同，即它含有相同的辅料和相同水合程度的MDMA，但MDMA/山梨醇比例略有不同。以纤维素为基础的样品制作粗糙，其药物/辅料比例在片剂之间存在相当大的差异，而以葡萄糖为基础的片剂其药物/辅料比例分布紧密。用于制造以纤维素、葡萄糖和山梨醇为基础的片剂的MDMA原料的水合程度彼此都不同。这项研究以一次查获的物理性质相似且含有相同活性药物的片剂为中心，突出了这样一个事实，即简单的物理描述加上活性药物含量本身并不能完全表征查获材料的性质。在这次单一查获的片剂成分中存在相当大的差异，并且这种差异可从拉曼光谱中检测到，这表明获取高度详细光谱的潜在益处确实能够转化为其他方法不易获得但对追踪毒品分销网络有用的信息。
