Recent Advances in Analytical Techniques for Antidepressants Determination in Complex Biological Matrices: A Review.

Depression is one of the most prevalent but severe of mental disorders, affecting thousands of individuals across the globe. Depression, in its most extreme form, may result in self-harm and an increased likelihood of suicide. Antidepressant drugs are first-line medications to treat mental disorders. Unfortunately, these medications are also prescribed for other in- and off-label conditions, such as deficit/hyperactivity disorders, attention disorders, migraine, smoking cessation, eating disorders, fibromyalgia, pain, and insomnia. This results in an increase in the use of antidepressant medications, leading to clinical and forensic overdose cases that could be either accidental or deliberate. The findings revealed that people who used antidepressants had a 33% greater chance of dying sooner than expected, compared to those who did not take the medications. Analytical techniques for precisely identifying and detecting antidepressants and their metabolic products in a variety of biological matrices are greatly needed to be developed and made available. Hence, this study attempts to discuss various analytical techniques used to identify and determine antidepressants in various biological matrices, which include urine, blood, oral fluid (saliva), and tissues, which are commonly encountered in clinical and forensic science laboratories.

Forensic toxicological and analytical aspects of carbamate poisoning - A review.

Pesticides play a pivotal role in modern agricultural practices and effective domestic pest control. Despite their advantages, pesticides pose a great danger to humans and animals due to their toxicity. Pesticides, particularly carbamates, are extensively used all over the world in crop protection and domestic pest control, however, also causing morbidity and mortality on a larger scale, which is of great significance in both clinical and criminal justice management.Carbamates are derived from a carbamic acid (NH2COOH) that are commonly used as insecticides. Ethienocarb, Sevin, Carbaryl, Fenoxycarb, Furadan, Carbofuran, Aldicarb, and 2-(1-Methylpropyl) phenyl N-methylcarbamate are examples of insecticides that include the carbamate functional group. By reversibly inactivating the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, these insecticides can induce cholinesterase inhibition poisoning.Chromatographic methods, notably gas and liquid chromatography have traditionally been employed to analyse carbamate pesticides and their metabolites in various matrices. These approaches are employed due to their ability to separate the chemicals contained in a sample; as well as identify and quantify these compounds utilizing advanced detection systems. Aside from these GC and LC conventional methods, other detection and/or hyphenated techniques such as single-quadrupole, ion-trap, triple-quadrupole, or tandem mass spectrometry, have been used in carbamate analysis to provide quick results with excellent sensitivity, precision, and accuracy.The objective of this review is to describe various analytical techniques used to detect and determine carbamate pesticides in various matrices which include urine, blood, and tissues that are commonly encountered in emergency hospital laboratories and forensic science laboratories.

Thiophene-phenylquinazoline probe for selective ratiometric fluorescence and visual detection of Fe(iii) and turn-off fluorescence for I- and its applications.

A 2,5-bis(4-phenylquinazolin-2-yl)thiophene (BQT) probe is designed, synthesized and explored for selective ratiometric fluorescence and visual detection of Fe3+ and as a turn-off fluorescence probe for I- anion. BQT is colorless and has blue emission in CH3CN solution. BQT selectively complexes with Fe3+, turns its solution from colorless to greenish yellow and enables the ratiometric sensing of Fe3+ with limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantitation (LOQ) of 2 × 10-8 M and 6.1 × 10-8 M, respectively. Binding constant of BQT with Fe3+ is found to be 4.1 × 10-4 M-1. BQT is also able to sense I- anion present in aqueous solution by selectively turning colorless to yellow and fluorescence quenching with a LOD of 1.7 × 10-7 M and LOQ of 5.2 × 10-7 M. BQT sensing ability is not influenced by the presence of other metal ions and anions in the vicinity. The BQT-Fe3+ complex is thoroughly characterized using MALDI-TOF, NMR and Job's plot. A reversibility experiment with EDTA suggests BQT is a reversible fluorescent chemosensor for Fe3+ ions. The spectroscopic data of BQT and its complexes are employed to construct a field test kit for qualitative analysis and INHIBIT logic gate.

Determination of cyclamate in urine by derivatized gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

AIM: It is important in toxicological/drug screening work to rule out the possible interfering analytes, to eliminate the false positive or negative results. In this paper, we describe a simple, selective, and sensitive derivatized GC-MS method for the determination of cyclohexylsulfamic acid (cyclamate) in urine. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Elite- 5MS capillary column was used for the separation of analytes and detection using GC-MS. The analysis was carried out in selected ion monitoring mode (SIM) in the range of 26 to 200 using m/z values of 57, 30, 55, 41, 44, 67, 82, 98, and 39. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The method is based on the conversion of cyclamate into nitroso derivative of cyclamate followed by its gas chromatography-mass spectrometry determination. The limit of detection, limit of quantitation, and linearity range of the proposed method were found to be 0.2 µg/ ml, 0.7 µg/ml, and 1-15 µg/ml, respectively. The recovery of the present method is in the range of 88-94%. CONCLUSION: The proposed method can be applied for detection and quantification of cyclamate in urine.