Development of a supercritical fluid extraction method for the determination of temazepam in whole blood

A supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) procedure for the analysis of temazepam from whole blood was developed. Quantitative recoveries were obtained by high-performance liquid chromatography using prazepam as an internal standard and carefully monitoring the extraction temperature and pressure. The results were found to compare well with those obtained by solid-phase extraction techniques, but they also had the advantages of reduced solvent consumption and minimal sample handling. The application of this method to authentic forensic blood specimens showed the SFE method to be useful as an alternative procedure for the extraction of temazepam in the toxicology laboratory.