Determination of Morphine, Codeine, and 6-Monoacetylmorphine in Bile Specimens
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Updated: Nov 2, 2026

High-throughput and Comprehensive Drug Surveillance Using Multisegment Injection-Capillary Electrophoresis-Mass Spectrometry
Published on: April 23, 2019
Pedro Dinis1, João M Franco2, Cláudia Margalho3
1Serviço de Química e Toxicologia Forenses, Delegação do Centro, Instituto Nacional de Medicina Legal e Ciências Forenses, I. P., Pólo das Ciências da Saúde (Pólo III) - Azinhaga de Santa Comba, 3000-548, Coimbra, Portugal.
Abstract:
Opioid consumption has remained a public health problem, contributing to a significant number of fatal overdoses. Both opioids and metabolites can be detected in bile specimens due to hepatic metabolism and enterohepatic circulation, offering higher concentrations and a wide detection window compared to blood samples. Thus, bile is a suitable specimen that can provide supplementary data for routine forensic toxicology cases. This chapter presents a sensitive and specific method for the qualitative confirmation of morphine, codeine, and 6-monoacetylmorphine, a heroin consumption marker, in bile samples. The proposed methodology involves a solid-phase extraction procedure and subsequent analysis by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry.
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