NCJ Number
188657
Journal
Legal Medicine Volume: 2 Issue: 2 Dated: August 2000 Pages: 119-122
Date Published
August 2000
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This paper describes a simple and sensitive method of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) developed by the authors to determine the presence of the analgesic drug pentazocine in solid tissues in forensic toxicological analyses during autopsies or other situations.
Abstract
The technique combined HPLC with a three-step liquid-liquid extraction procedure. Levallorphan tartrate served as the internal standard. The technique used a fluorescence detector. Results revealed that the lower level of detection was about 0.5 nanograms per gram. The calibration curve was linear over the concentration ranges from 1 to 500 nanograms per gram in each tissue examined and could be determined up to at least 10 micrograms per gram by means of reduction of injected volumes. The analysis concluded that this method could determine the concentrations of pentazocine in the tissues of an autopsied individual for toxicological assessment. Figure, tables, and 9 references (Author abstract modified)