Glass bottle sampling solid phase microextraction gas chromatography mass spectrometry for breath analysis of drug metabolites

Abstract Breath analysis is a non-invasive approach which may be applied to disease diagnosis and pharmacokinetic study. In the case of offline analysis, the exhaled gas needs to be collected and the sampling bag is often used as the storage vessel. However, the sampling bag usually releases some extra compounds, which may interfere with the result of the breath test. In this study, a novel breath sampling glass bottle was developed with a syringe needle sampling port for solid phase microextraction (SPME). Such a glass bottle scarcely liberates compounds and can be used to collect exhaled gas for ensuing analysis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS). The glass bottle sampling SPME-GC–MS analysis was carried out to investigate the breath metabolites of myrtol, a multicompound drug normally used in the treatment of bronchitis and sinusitis. Four compounds, α-pinene, 2,3-dehydro-1,8-cineole, d-limonene and 1,8-cineole were found in the exhaled breath of all eight volunteers who had taken the myrtol. While for other ten subjects who had not used the myrtol, these compounds were undetectable. In the SPME-GC–MS analysis of the headspace of myrtol, three compounds were detected including α-pinene, d-limonene and 1,8-cineole. Comparing the results of breath and headspace analysis, it indicates that 2,3-dehydro-1,8-cineole in the breath is the metabolite of 1,8-cineole. It is the first time that this metabolite was identified in human breath. The study demonstrates that the glass bottle sampling SPME-GC–MS method is applicable to exhaled gas analysis including breath metabolites investigation of drugs like myrtol.