Street-Like Synthesis of Krokodil Results in the Formation of an Enlarged Cluster of Known and New Morphinans

“Krokodil” is the street name for a homemade injectable drug that has been used as a cheap substitute for heroin. Codeine is the opioid starting material for krokodil synthesis, and desomorphine is claimed to be the main opioid of krokodil and the main component responsible for its addictive and psychoactive characteristics. However, due to its peculiar manufacture, using cheap raw materials, krokodil is composed of a large and complex mixture of different substances. In order to shed some light upon the chemical complexity of krokodil, its profiling was conducted by reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography coupled to a photodiode array detector (RP-HPLC-DAD) and by liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-IT-Orbitrap-MS). Besides desomorphine, codeine, and morphine, profiting from the high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) data, an endeavor to study the morphinans content in krokodil was set for the first time. Considering codeine as the only morphin...