First analytical identification of N, N-dimethylpentylone in Argentina Analysis of a Seized Sample

Abstract

The analysis of seized drugs sometimes requires different analytical techniques to allow the correct identification of the substances present. Normally, the pills circulating in Argentina contain ecstasy (MDMA) or 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA) and the identification of synthetic cathinones is unusual. The appearance of new psychoactive substances requires that laboratories have the appropriate technology for their correct identification due to the large number of structural isomers that some substances present and the limited availability of reference standards. The analysis of a seized sample using different analytical techniques is presented for the correct identification of methamphetamine and N,NDimethylpentylone, a synthetic cathinone identified for the first time in Argentina by the Toxicology and Forensic Chemistry Laboratory. The analysis exposes the advantage of having different analytical techniques for the identification of a synthetic cathinone that presents structural isomers and the different limitations that gas chromatography with mass spectrometry detection and electron impact ionisation (GC-IE-MS) represent for the identification of this group of substances.