Isolation of drugs from blood by column chromatography on Amberlite XAD-2

An investigation was carried out on the isolation of 28 drugs from blood by column chromatography on Amberlite XAD-2. The following substances were added to postmortem blood specimens at concentrations generally of 1--10 microgram/ml: barbital, heptabarbital, hexobarbital, pentobarbital, phenobarbital, phenylbutazone, monocrotophos, amidopyrine, carbromal, diazepam, meprobamate, methaqualone, nitrazepam, phenazetin, chlorpromazine, dibenzepin, diphenhydramine, haloperidol, imipramine, mescaline, methadone, morphine, pentazocine, pethidine, tilidine, triflupromazine, verapamil, N-propylajmalinium bitartrate. The samples were purified by column chromatography on Amberlite XAD-2 and simple solvent extraction and subsequently quantitated by gas chromatography. By systematic variation of the conditions for adsorption of the drugs and desorption from the resin, revoveries of more than 80% after XAD-2 column chromatography could be achieved for most drugs. Thereby it was demonstrated, that in cases of fatal poisoning or emergencies this procedure is a valuable tool for forensic and clinical toxicologists who have to find out the toxic agent by chemical analysis of the blood.