Methyl-4-hydroxybutyrate and Ethyl-4-hydroxybutyrate as Potential Markers for Simultaneous Consumption of GHB/GBL and Alcohol: Preliminary Investigations

γ-Hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) and its corresponding lactone γ-butyrolactone (GBL) are misused as knock out (k.o.) drugs. The short detection window and the major inter- and intra-individual variations of endogenous GHB concentrations in commonly used matrices such as blood and urine complicate the analytical proof of an exogenous GHB/GBL administration. We searched for an alternative way to prove an exogenous GHB/GBL administration via detection of methyl- and ethyl-4-hydroxybutyrate which could arise in alcoholic solutions after spiking with GHB/GBL. A liquid chromatographic-triple quadrupole-mass spectrometric (LC-QQQ-MS) method was developed and validated to quantitatively determine methyl- and ethyl-4-hydroxybutyrate in alcoholic beverages (limit of detection (LoD): 5.8 ng/mL and 3.4 ng/mL, respectively). A sample collective of alcoholic beverages (n = 47) revealed natural occurring amounts of ethyl-4-hydroxybutyrate (

Keywords:

• Detection limit
• Chemistry
• Wine
• Alcohol
• Chromatography
• Urine
• alcohol content
• γ-Hydroxybutyric acid
• Lactone
• lc qqq ms

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