• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.226-231
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• 2010

Oral fluid has become increasingly popular as an alternative specimen in the field of driving under the influence of drugs (DUID) and work place drug testing. In this study, an analytical method for the detection and quantification of ${\Delta}^9$-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and its metabolite, 11-nor-9-carboxy-${\Delta}^9$-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC-COOH) in oral fluid by SPE and GC-MS was established and fully validated. The stability of THC and THC-COOH in oral fluid during storage was also determined by examining the THC and THC-COOH concentration changes depending on time and container materials. Oral fluid samples were kept over 21 days at room temperature, $-4^{\circ}C$ and $-20^{\circ}C$ in two different specimen collection tubes; glass and polypropylene tubes. Three replicates for each condition with different temperature and types of a container were analyzed at five different time points over 21 days. When oral fluid samples were stored in glass tubes, the loss of both THC and THC-COOH was less than 10% at all room temperature, $-4^{\circ}C$ and $-20^{\circ}C$. However, in polypropylene tubes, the loss of both THC and THC-COOH increased significantly over the study period. In particular, the concentration of THC decreased more rapidly than that of THC-COOH at room temperature and the maximal percentage of THC lost was 90.3% after 21 days. The result indicates that it would be necessary to collect oral fluid samples in glass containers and cool the samples until analysis in order to prevent the degradation of analytes.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.207-212
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• 2004

An analytic method was developed for the quantitation of $\Delta$$^{9}-$ tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and 11-nor-9-carboxy THC (THC-COOH) in human hair. After hair samples were pulverized using Freezer Mill, deuterated internal standards were added and digested in 1 N NaOH at $100^{\circ}C$ water bath for 30 min. Digest solutions were extracted by 5 ml hexane：ethyl acetate (90：10) after acidification with acetic acid. The organic phase was evaporated under N 2 and derivatized by BSTFA (with 1% TMCS) at $85^{\circ}C$ for 45 min. The derivatized solution was separated on HP-5MS column ($30m{\times}0.25mm{\times}0.25mm$) and detected using EI-GC-MS with selective ion monitoring mode. The assay of calibration was ranged from 5 to 100 ng/50 mg hair ($r^2$＞0.99) for THC and THC-COOH. Within and between-run precision were calculated at 6, 30, 60 ng/50 mg hair with coefficients of variation less than 11%. Within and between run accuracies at the same concentrations were$\pm$14% and $\pm$30% of target for both analytes, respectively. Absolute and relative recovery at 10 and 100 ng were 60∼91％. The method was used to detect and quantify THC and THC-COOH in cannabis abuser's hairs (N = 16) and SRM (N=5, THC 1 ng/mg, NIST). We detected THC and THC-COOH in only one hair sample. In SRM, % accuracy was 93% (range 86∼103%) and precision (% CV) was 8.14. We began to set up a quantitative analysis of THC and THC-COOH using EI-GC-MS. Continuously, we need to modify and develop this method in order to apply for identification in cannanbis users' hair.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2011

We described an estimation of measurement uncertainty in quantitative analysis of 11-nor-9-carboxy-${\Delta}^9$-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC-COOH), the metabolite of ${\Delta}^9$-tetrahydrocannabinol, in hair samples by using the bead-assisted liquid-liquid extraction and gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric (GC-NCI-MS/MS) detection. Traceability of measurement was established through the use of reference materials, calibrated volumetric tubes, volume measuring devices, and measuring instruments. The analytical results were compared and the different contributions to the uncertainty were evaluated. Inter-day variation was performed by using statistical analysis of several indicative factors. Measurement uncertainty associated with the analyte in real forensic hair samples were estimated using QC data. The major factor of contribution to combined standard uncertainty was inter-day repeatability, while those associated with preparation of analytical standard and also sample of weight were insignificant considering the degree of contribution. Relative uncertainty of relative extended standard uncertainty divided into the measured concentration of the analyte was 17% in a hair sample. The uncertainty of result evaluation will be invaluable to improve quality of the analysis.