Date-rape evidence through fast determination of γ-butyrolactone in adulterated beverages

Abstract An infrared spectroscopy (IR) based methodology has been developed to determine γ-butyrolactone (GBL) in adulterated beverages. The proposed method permits the direct screening of GBL in beverages and involves a minimum sample treatment requiring less than two minutes for quantitative determination of GBL. Sensitivity of IR method was improved by using liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) providing detection limits of 0.023 mg g-1. Accuracy of the proposed methodology was evaluated through the analysis of soft beverages and alcoholic cocktails spiked with GBL at concentration levels ranging from 0.075 to 10 mg g-1 providing recovery values from 91 to 100%. GBL was determined in twelve blind-spiked beverages, including from mineral water to wine and cocktails. Results obtained were statistically comparable to those provided by a liquid chromatography (LC) reference methodology and consistent with the spiked values. Therefore, the use of LLE-FTIR allowed a simple, sensitive and quantitative determination of GBL in soft beverages and alcoholic cocktails, thus evidencing its use for sex submission intention.