The Quantitation of Heroin and Selected Basic Impurities Via Reversed Phase HPLC. I. The Analysis of Unadulterated Heroin Samples

Abstract

Methodology was developed employing reversed phase liquid chromatography for the simultaneous determination of heroin, O³-monoacetylmorphine, o⁶-monoacetylmorphine, acetylcodeine, noscapine and papaverine in unadulterated illicit powders. An HS-5 C18 column was used with a gradient system using methanol and a hexylamine phosphate buffer at pH 2.2. This method, suitable for automated analysis, used a multi-mode detection scheme via the use of a photodiode array detector. In order to arrive at the optimum chromatographic conditions in terms of selectivity and stability, a study was performed on the effect of various mobile phase parameters on log k′ for heroin, various impurities, and common adulterants. The mobile phase parameters included amine concentration, organic modifier type, and eluent pH.