A proposed approach to confirm heroin administration - Regional differences in heroin purity is a major factor.

In forensic toxicology, a marker of street heroin use is urgent especially in the absence of urinary 6-monoacetylmorphine. ATM4G, the Glucuronide of Acetylated product of Thebaine compound 4 Metabolite (ATM4), arising from byproducts of street heroin synthesis has been considered as a useful marker in some European studies. However, whether ATM4G is a universal marker particularly in Southeast Asia due to 'street' heroin with high purity, it's still unclear. To investigate putative markers for different regions, ATM4G and other metabolites including the Acetylated product of Thebaine compound 3 Metabolite (ATM3) and thebaol, also originated from thebaine were detected in 552 urine samples from heroin users in Taiwan. Results were compared with that from samples collected in the UK and Germany. Only a sulfo-conjugate of ATM4, ATM4S, was detected in 28 Taiwanese users using a sensitive MS3 method whilst out of 351 samples from the UK and Germany, ATM4G was present in 91. Thebaol-glucuronide was first time detected in 118. No markers were detected in urine following herbal medicine use or poppy seed ingestion. The presence of ATM4S/ATM4G might be affected by ethnicities and heroin supplied in regions. Thebaol-glucuronide is another putative marker with ATM4G and ATM4S for street heroin use.

Measuring Ochratoxin A Concentrations in Coffee Beverages with Immunoaffinity Columns and Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography/Tandem Mass Spectrometry.

This study developed and validated a method for measuring concentrations of ochratoxin A (OTA) in coffee beverages, not coffee beans. The new method involved extraction using immunoaffinity columns and ultra-performance LC (UPLC)-MS/MS using isotope-dilution techniques. The combination of a fused-core column and UPLC significantly shortened chromatographic time to 3 min compared to reported UPLC methods. The method was sensitive, with an LOD and LOQ of 0.52 and 1.73 pg/mL, respectively. Quantitative intraday (n = 4) and interday (n = 4) biases and RSD were both below 15%. The OTA levels in 40 samples of freshly brewed coffee from chain stores, 24 samples of canned ready-to-drink coffee, and 6 beverages made from instant coffee granules ranged from 1.60 to 93.2 pg/mL (90% positive), 6.00 to 131 pg/mL (100% positive), and 21.8 to 59.0 pg/mL (100% positive), respectively. Based on published tolerable daily intake, men and women in Taiwan should consume no more than 6.3 and 5.1 fifteen gram packages of instant coffee per day, respectively. Specific suggestions were not made for brewed coffee and canned coffee because of their large variation in OTA concentrations. This study should be more relevant to actual human exposure than those studying OTA in green, roasted, and ground coffee beans alone.