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Although new legislation has been put in place very recently to try to bring herbal medicines under control, members of the public and physicians should remain aware of the potential of unstated drugs in such products.
• Physicians should be aware that serious adverse reactions may occur in patients combining conventional and complementary therapies.
• Patients may not raise any suspicions to products that claim to be ‘natural’.
• Patients should consult their GP’s or pharmacists when thinking of turning to herbal alternatives to treat symptons or supplement other treatment.

The use of fentanyl is steadily increasing as the biological effects of fentanyl are identical to heroin; with the exception that fentanyl is more potent. The drug is very “attractive” within the narcotic market and with its analogues is sold under the names; synthetic heroin or “China white”. The drug is also occasionally abused by medical personnel who have easy access to the drug. The increased use of fentanyl requires an easy and reproducible method for quantification. Fentanyl was measured using LC/MS/MS, which offers rapid and sensitive analysis with simple mobile phase composition and small sample volume. The assay can be used to measure the more potent analogues: alfentanil, sulfentanil, lofentanil, carfentanil and remifentanil.

This study has shown that fly larvae are able to metabolise methadone (confirmed by the presence of EDDP) and that both these analytes can be detected in a single fly larva by GC-MS. It has been shown that fly larvae take approximately seven days to begin to metabolise methadone to EDDP. In fly larvae that have been removed from the methadone-spiked food source, methadone can still be detected for up to three days where as EDDP can be detected for at least five days. The negative results for methadone and EDDP in the fly larvae reared on blank liver indicate that fly larvae are unable to bioaccumulate methadone and EDDP. The appearance of the adult flies suggests that methadone slows the development rate of fly larvae. The flies from the larvae reared on blank liver were bigger and appeared to be at a more advanced stage of development.

Khat (Catha edulis Forsk), also known as Quat, Qat and Chat, is a psychotropic herbal drug, cultivated in Eastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Khat is a leafy evergreen shrub that can grow to a height of up to 20 feet. Its leaves contain cathinone and cathine (norpseudoephedrine), which produce amphetamine-like stimulant effects. The more harmacologically active component, cathinone, which has half the potency of amphetamine, is unstable and breaks down to the less active cathine and norephedrine. The effects of khat are therefore greatest when the leaves are chewed fresh, within 48 hours of picking.

Bioanalytical method development is often a trade-off between achieving a needed sensitivity and the desire for minimal sample analysis time. When sensitivity is not paramount, methods based on dilution or protein precipitation are selected to reduce cost and analysis time. These methods, however, may not be as robust or clean as more involved techniques such as solid phase extraction. We investigate the possibility of creating robust methods across samples and /or species by selective removal of matrix interferences including proteins, phospholipids, and lysophospholipids. This filtration based device, known as Captiva NDLipids, gives improved cleanliness over protein precipitation, yet avoids additional method development or sample processing time. The method also normalizes disparate samples and may lead to more robust methods for the entire bioanalytical process.

Saliva collection is a robust, high integrity and reliable method for on-site drug sampling, where sample manipulation or adulteration is difficult. Most drugs of abuse extraction methods for saliva have historically focussed on liquid-liquid extraction and simple SPE sorbents which require extensive method development. Saliva testing has some limitations due to sample volume and drug concentration often being low. Additives present in the collection device can also cause sensitivity issues in LC MS/MS. We describe an innovative polymeric SPE sorbent, which has excellent extraction properties and uses generic methods with excellent reproducibility. It also has special surface chemistry that allows for exclusion of saliva collection device preservatives. Examples of extractions on LC MS/MS and GC MS/MS are shown for several drug classes.

The spread of blood borne viruses through the injection of illicit drugs often overshadows the effects of infections caused by bacteria and fungi. These infections can cause severe morbidity and mortality, and unlike viral injections they do not require the presence of other injectors to occur. These infections can be transmitted from injection materials (drug, acidifier or water), dirty equipment, the environment, or the users themselves- for instance, from their skin.
The outbreak of Clostridium novyi infections in the UK and Ireland in 2000 was the result of drug material contaminated with this bacterium.

Duloxetine (Cymbalta®) is a selective serotonin and noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor (SSNRI) with weak activity on dopamine reuptake prescribed for the treatment of major depressive disorder, generalised anxiety disorder, pain related to diabetic neuropathy, and stress urinary incontinence. The aim of this work was to review five post-mortem cases, recently submitted to LGC Forensics for toxicological analysis, in which duloxetine, listed as one of the prescribed medications, was detected in the blood.

Review of a new benchtop mass spectrometer based on a stand-alone Orbitrap mass analyzer. Key features of the instrument layout,analytical parameters and typical applications are described.

Rapid and sensitive screening for known and unknown prohibited substances using high resolution selectivity on a hybrid linear and orbitrap mass spectrometer.