, Volume 34, Issue 1, pp 94-107
First online:
08 October 2015
Abstract
In February 2015, 13
“spice-like” products, available on the German market, were analyzed.
In total, eight different synthetic cannabinoids were identified by gas
chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS), namely 5-fluoro-AB-PINACA,
AB-CHMINACA, AB-FUBINACA, 5-fluoro-PB-22, 5-fluoro-AMB, MDMB-CHMICA,
EAM-2201 and STS-135. In most of the products (11/13), only one
synthetic cannabinoid was identified, while two products contained two
or three synthetic cannabinoids. For some of the compounds
(5-fluoro-AB-PINACA, AB-CHMINACA, 5-fluoro-AMB) only insufficient
physicochemical data are available in literature. To our knowledge
MDMB-CHMICA (sometimes mistakenly referred to as MBMD-CHMINACA) was not
described earlier in scientific literature, and, hence, an in-depth
characterization of these compounds by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)
spectroscopy, electron ionization–mass spectroscopy, electrospray
ionization–tandem mass spectroscopy (ESI-MS/MS), infrared spectroscopy
and ultraviolet spectroscopy was conducted for eight compounds. In
addition, we developed an ESI-MS method for the direct quantification of
synthetic cannabinoids in commercial smoking blends, without
chromatographic separation. Quantification was achieved using methyl
3-(3-(1-naphthoyl)-1H-indol-1-yl)propionate
as the internal standard with appropriate response factors. The total
contents of synthetic cannabinoids in the investigated products ranged
from 60 to 446 mg/g, while individual compounds ranged from 12 to
314 mg/g.
