Room-temperature luminescence analysis of drugs with application to the Toxi-Lab drug identification system.

A method of analyzing drugs on the Toxi-Lab thin-layer chromatographic system by solid substrate room-temperature luminescence is described. Three pairs of unresolved drugs: quinine/cimetidine, caffeine/chlordiazepoxide, and phenazopyridine/lidocaine, were studied as model compounds. Their luminescence characteristics were obtained and calibration curves were found to be linear over two orders of magnitude. The effect of the nonluminescent component of each pair on the determination of the luminescent component was found to be negligible. Statistical F-tests showed that the observed differences in the slopes and intercepts of the calibration curves were due to random errors. The method was evaluated by determining quinine in urine samples at the ng level.