Detection of the pharmaceutical agent glaucine as a recreational drug.

Keywords Glaucine.Recreationaldrugs.Druglegislation.ToxicologicalscreeningWe would like to report a case of toxicity related torecreational use of the pharmaceutical product glaucine. A23-year-old woman presented to the Emergency Department(ED) following ingestion of two tablets of “head candy”,marketed as a 1-benzylpiperazine (BZP)-free “herbal high”.She developed nausea and vomiting within 30 min ofingestion, followed by a period of dissociative-type symp-toms, feeling detached and “in another world”.Onarrivalinthe ED, she was agitated, vomiting, tachycardic (100 bpm)and tachypnoeic but with a normal blood pressure (135/82mmHg) and temperature (36.8°C). Her pupilsweredilated(6 mm), although the remainder of her neurological examina-tion was normal. Abdominal examination was unremarkable.She was treated with intravenous fluids and antiemetics(cyclizine 50 mg IVand prochlorperazine 12.5 mg IM) andadmitted overnight for observation. She was discharged thefollowing day once her symptoms had resolved.Serumandurinesamplescollectedatthetimeofadmissionwere subsequently analysed by gas chromatography–massspectrometry(GC/MS),andglaucinewasdetectedinboththeserumandurinesamples.Thesampleandcalibrators(250μl)were prepared using liquid–liquid extraction and adjusted toanalkalinepH with1 M sodium hydroxide.The solutionwasextracted with 4 ml methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE).Following centrifugation the organic layer was transferred to0.1 M phosphoric acid. After phase separation by centrifuga-tion, the organic layer was removed to waste. Then, 1 Msodium hydroxide and MTBE were added to the remainingsubnatant. The samples were then vortex-mixed, centrifugedand a 1-μl aliquot of the supernatant was injected onto theGC-MS system. GC-MS analysis was performed using aShimadzu GC-MS-QP2010 with a Shimadzu AOC-20iautosampler. An HP-5 MS 30 m×0.25 mm, 0.5 μm; (5%-Phenyl)-methylpolysiloxane analytical column (Agilent, PaloAlto, CA, USA) was employed for separation. Helium wasused as the carrier gas at a flow rate of 1 ml/min. The injectorwasmaintainedat225°Candthedetectorat200°C.Theinitialcolumntemperaturewassetat80°Candheldfor4min.Itwasthen ramped by 25°C/min up to 290°C and held for 9.6 min(total run time 22 min). Positive electron impact ionisation(EI) mode was used, and data were collected using single ionmonitoring (SIM). Glaucine and flurazepam (internal stan-dard)werequantifiedmonitoringtheirmostabundantionm/z:354 and 86 and their retention times were 19.09 and17.75 min, respectively. Due to the unavailability of a pure