Dept. of Pharm. Chemistry, University of Graz, Schubertstrasse 1, 8010, Graz, Austria.
Institute of Forensic Medicine, Medical University of Graz, 8010, Graz, Austria.
Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Feb;319:110658. doi: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2020.110658. Epub 2020 Dec 25.
The consumption of Khat leaves represents an ancient kind of drug abuse mainly observed in Eastern Africa and the Arab Peninsula among adult men. For this purpose, the leaves are directly collected from the shrub "Catha edulis" prior to extensive chewing process. Seizures in Europe are rare, since the leaves have to undergo quick transportation: After a short period of time, the harvested leaves decompose and suffer in decrease of concentration of the active ingredient cathinone, which makes long term transportation difficult. As an alternative, plant material can be dried to increase life period. In the past years, an increasing number of seizures were made by Austrian police, however, the content of cathinone and cathine in dry material is widely unknown. In this work, a seizure of fresh Khat leaves was compared with two seizures of dried material in terms of concentration of cathinone and cathine using LC-MS/MS analysis. For fresh leaves, a purity grade was found to be 0.115-0.158% for cathinone and 0.172-0.192% for cathine, respectively. In contrast, subsequent storage of dried Khat leaves over months led to a dramatic loss of cathinone: Analysis of two seizures revealed that concentration of cathinone dropped to 0.021-0.023%. These findings are intended to serve as a guideline for Justice authorities to estimate the content of the controlled ingredients of Khat leaves in future.
咔特叶的消费是一种古老的药物滥用形式，主要发生在东非和阿拉伯半岛的成年男性中。为此，人们会在广泛咀嚼咔特叶之前直接从灌木“巧茶”上采集叶子。在欧洲，这种情况很少见，因为叶子需要快速运输：在短时间内，收获的叶子会分解，其中的有效成分卡西酮的浓度会降低，这使得长途运输变得困难。作为替代方法，可以将植物材料干燥以延长保质期。在过去的几年中，奥地利警方缴获的咔特叶数量有所增加，但干燥材料中卡西酮和卡他碱的含量却鲜为人知。在这项工作中，使用 LC-MS/MS 分析比较了新鲜咔特叶与两批干燥材料中卡西酮和卡他碱的浓度。对于新鲜叶子，卡西酮的纯度等级为 0.115-0.158%，卡他碱的纯度等级为 0.172-0.192%。相比之下，干燥咔特叶在数月后的储存会导致卡西酮的急剧损失：对两次缴获的分析表明，卡西酮的浓度下降到 0.021-0.023%。这些发现旨在为司法当局提供指导，以便在未来估算咔特叶中受管制成分的含量。
