Monolithic silica capillary column extraction of methamphetamine and amphetamine in urine coupled with thin-layer chromatographic detection

A monolithic silica capillary column was first developed in Japan in 2001 as a new tool for better liquid chromatographic separation. The column is made of C18-bonded monolithic silica packed into a capillary glass tube (0.20 mm i.d.). In this study, we used this column for solid-phase extraction of methamphetamine (MA) and amphetamine (AP) in urine. Chromatographic separation was achieved by thin-layer chromatography (TLC) with double-spray detection of each spot. For extraction of amphetamines in urine, samples were mixed with phosphate buffer (pH 3.0, containing 20mM sodium octanesulfate), and the analytes were adsorbed to the column by passing the mixture through it. They were then eluted with a 10-μl volume of ethyl acetate and directly spotted onto a TLC plate. After development, the detection of MA was performed with Simon’s reagent. The plate was air-dried, and then over-sprayed with fluorescamine reagent for detection of AP. A fluorescent spot of AP was observed at 365 nm using an ultraviolet viewing system. The detection limits of MA and AP in urine were about 1.0 and 2.0μg/ml, respectively. To confirm the usefulness of this method, the eluent from the column was also analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) after derivatization with heptafluorobutyric anhydride. In analysis of 30 actual urine samples, the results obtained by the monolith-TLC system were generally well in accordance with those obtained by GC-MS.