Determination of amphetamine, amfepramone and fenproporex in urine samples by HPLC-DAD: Application to a population of Brazilian truck drivers

Abstract

Commercially available immunoassay tests are designed to detect the presence of amphetamine/methamphetamine or methylenodioxyamphetamines. However, it is known that Brazilian truck drivers also report the use of other illicit amphetamines, such as amfepramone and fenproporex. Thus, a method was developed and validated in order to quantify amphetamine-type stimulants (amphetamine, fenproporex and amfepramone) in urine by high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD). Prior to this, a liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) with diethyl ether was performed in order to extract the analytes. The limit of detection was 150 ng mL-1. The method showed to be precise (relative standard deviation, RSD < 15%) and the recovery values for the three analytes were greater than 50%. The linearity ranged from 150 to 1000 ng mL-1 (r2 > 0.99). Urine samples randomly collected from 385 truck drivers in Brazilian roads were submitted to the developed method. Nine samples were tested positive for amphetamine and one was tested positive for fenproporex and amphetamine.