Isolation of drugs from autopsy material by XAD-2 adsorption-elution technique. A routine procedure.

The method of adsorption of drugs on Amberlite XAD-2 resin, followed by differential elution was under study during 1 1/2 year of routine use. The method allows a separation of acidic and basic drugs and--due to acid hydrolysis step before adsorption--assures better recovery of conjugated and protein-bound drugs. The amounts of various drugs, found in autopsy cases by the XAD-2 method were usually higher than those found by solvent extraction. The method applied requires 20 g of sample (biofluid or tissue) for general toxicological analysis.