Analysis of Forty-Two Psychoactive Substances in a Single Hair by Micro-Segmental Technique.

Objectives: To establish an LC-MS/MS method based on single hair micro-segmental technique, and verify the detection of 42 psychoactive substances in 0.4 mm hair segments.

Methods: Each piece of single hair was cut into 0.4 mm segments and extracted by sonication and the segments were immersed in dithiothreitol-containing extraction medium. Mobile phase A was the aqueous solution containing 20 mmol/L ammonium acetate, 0.1% formic acid, and 5% acetonitrile. Mobile phase B was acetonitrile. An electrospray ionization source in positive ion mode was used for data acquisition in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode.

Results: The 42 psychoactive substances in hair had a good linear relationship within their respective linear ranges (>0.99), the limits of detection were 0.2-10 pg/mm, the limits of quantification were 0.5-20 pg/mm, the intra-day and inter-day precisions were 1.5%-12.7%, the intra-day and inter-day accuracies were 86.5%-109.2%, the recovery rates were 68.1%-98.2%, and the matrix effects were 71.3%-111.7%. The method was applied to hair samples collected from one volunteer at 28 d after a single dose of zolpidem, with zolpidem detected in 5 hairs was 1.08-1.60 cm near the root tip, and the concentration range was 0.62-20.5 pg/mm.

Conclusions: The micro-segmental technique of single hair analysis can be applied to the investigation of drug-facilitated sexual assault cases.