Gas Chromatographic Analysis of Zipeprol in Blood

혈액중 지페프롤의 가스크로마토그래피에 의한 분석

The abuse of zipeprol, an antitussive agent, is prevalent among young people. Ten fatal cases of zipeprol concentration in blood after its abuse had caused death are disscussed. GC equipped with TSD was used to quantify the drug in postmortem blood and GC/MS to identify the metabolites in urine after preliminary test. The calibration curve of zipeprol was linear (r = 0.998) and the recoveries of zipeprol 5, 10 and $20\;{\mu}g$ added to 1 ml postmortem blood were $97.2{\pm}3.9$, $92.5{\pm}3.9$ and $86.9{\pm}4.6%$ respectively. The blood zipeprol concentration varied 2.9 to $24.69\;{\mu}g/ml$ in 10 fatal cases. All the deaths were young adults with the age of 16-21. Three metabolites were identified in drug abuser's urine, 2-methoxy-2-phenyl ethylpiperazine, 2-hydroxy-3-methoxy-3-phenyl propylpiperazine and a demethylated zipeprol.