Determination of piperazine-type stimulants in human urine by means of microextraction in packed sorbent and high...

A method using microextraction by packed sorbent (MEPS) and high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) is described for the determination of piperazine-type stimulants in human urine. The studied compounds were 1-benzylpiperazine (BZP), 1-(3-trifluoromethylphenyl) piperazine (TFMPP), 1-(3-chlorophenyl) piperazine (mCPP) and 1-(4-methoxyphenyl) piperazine (MeOPP); 1-(2-chlorophenyl)-piperazine (oCPP) was used as internal standard (IS). The factors which might influence the extraction were screened previously using the fractional factorial design approach, and none of them influenced significantly the process. The procedure was linear for concentrations ranging from 0.1 (lower limit of quantitation--LLOQ) to 5 μg/mL, with determination coefficients (R(2)) higher than 0.99 for all analytes in all runs. The limits of detection were 0.1 μg/mL for BZP and TFMPP, while for MeOPP and mCPP 0.05 μg/mL was obtained. Intra- and interday precision ranged from 1 to 14%, and accuracy was within a ± 15% interval for all analytes, fulfilling the criteria normally accepted in bioanalytical method validation. Under the optimized conditions, extraction efficiency was higher than 80% for all analytes, except BZP (50%). MEPS showed to be a rapid (<2 min) and simple procedure for the determination of piperazine-type stimulants in human urine, allowing reducing the handling time and costs usually associated to this type of analysis. Furthermore, the fact that only 0.1 mL of sample is required make this method a valuable and powerful tool for drug monitoring in human urine in situations where those compounds are involved, for instance in forensic scenarios.