Measurement of atropine and scopolamine in hair by LC-MS/MS after Datura stramonium chronic exposure.

BACKGROUND

Datura stramonium is an herbaceous annual plant. All parts of the plant contain tropane alkaloids such as atropine and scopolamine. We report the case of a 22-year-old man admitted to a general hospital for visual and aural hallucinations. One week after his admission, as the hallucinations remained, the patient was transferred to a psychiatric hospital. Neither blood nor urine was conserved during his hospitalization, so a hair analysis was requested in order to identify a possible consumption of a Datura seed infusion.

METHODS

After decontamination and washing, hair strands were segmented into four pieces and grinded into a fine and homogeneous powder. We then incubated 20 mg for 10 min in 1 mL of phosphate buffer at pH 5.0 in the presence of 100 ng of ketamine-d4, used as internal standard (IS). Liquid-liquid extraction was performed with 4 mL of a mixture of hexane/ethyl acetate (1/1, v/v). The residue was reconstituted in 80 μL of mobile phase. A further 10 μL were injected into an 1.9 μm Hypersil GOLD PFP column (100 mm×2.1 mm) eluted with a gradient of acetonitrile and 2 mmol/L 0.1% formate buffer at a flow rate of 300 μL/min. Compounds were detected by a LCQ TSQ Vantage XP triple-quadripole mass spectrometer equipped with an electrospray ionization (ESI) source set in positive mode. SRM transitions m/z 290.2→124.1, m/z 304.2→138.1, and m/z 242.1→129.1 were optimized for atropine, scopolamine and IS, respectively.

RESULTS

The assay was accurate and precise over the range of 1.0 (lower limit of quantification) to 1000.0 pg/mg (upper limit of quantification) in hair. Both atropine (from 8.4 to 15.0 pg/mg) and scopolamine (1.0-1.3 pg/mg) were identified in the four segment of the hair showing a regular consumption of Datura admitted by the patient himself.

CONCLUSION

We report here the first description of atropine with scopolamine in a Caucasian dark man's hair after D. stramonium chronic exposure, using a validated LC-MS/MS method.