Analysis of emerging drugs of abuse by using miniaturized techniques

The use of recreational drugs is old as time. For centuries, plants, like coca (Erythroxylon coca), kath (Catha edulis), opium (Papaver somniferum), were used to achieve central nervous system (CNS)-psychoactive effects. Later, the knowledge in organic chemistry led to the synthesis of new drugs of abuse and this is an on-going trend nowadays. To contrast the use of these emerging drugs of abuse an important contribute is given by forensic sciences. Forensic sciences include all the applications of science which can be used to support at any level the enforcement of the law. Forensic analysis is a rapidly expanding field of analytical research as witnessed by the numerous publications and specific scientific reviews available in the scientific literature. It is worth noting however, that the majority of works concerning forensic analysis are related to chromatographic techniques (GC and HPLC) which can provide fast and easily comparable results, due to widespread standardized procedures. Owing to the great demand of forensic laboratories for faster, efficient and less costly analytical methods, miniaturization has emerged as an increasing popular tool also in forensic sciences. Separation techniques including capillary electrophoresis (CE) and nano-liquid chromatography (nano-LC) have been successfully applied to the analysis of illegal drugs both in seized materials and in biological fluids. Compared to conventional techniques, the miniaturized ones offer some unique advantages such as high efficiency and selectivity, shorter analysis time, lower sample dilution, need of smaller volumes of samples and reagents as well as small amounts of packing materials. For all these features these techniques can be applied advantageously also to forensic sciences. Indeed the applicability of these rapid and cost-effective analytical techniques are not yet largely exploited in forensic toxicology. In this perspective, to provide further confirmation of the reliability and applicability of these techniques in forensic laboratories, this work is started and aimed in its first part. The second part, instead, is aimed at confirming CE and nano-LC as valuable tools for screening and identification and for precise and sensitive quantification of analytes of forensic interest.