An article titled, ‘The Disposition of Oxycodone and Metabolite in Human Hair’ was recently published in the Journal of Analytical Toxicology (DOI:10.1093/jat/bkv076). Researchers investigated and validated a method for the identification of oxycodone (OC) and its first-order metabolite, oxymorphone (OM) from hair. Oxycodone, a pure mu-opioid receptor agonist, is not only a drug of clinical importance, but more recently, a popular drug of abuse. In Florida alone, the past decade’s increase in prescription drug overdoses due to OC far exceeded that of methadone, hydrocodone, and morphine.
Oxycodone and oxymorphone were extracted from 10-50 mg of digested, acid-washed hair using UCT’s CLEAN SCREEN® DAU mixed-mode solid-phase extraction columns. Samples were analyzed via LC-MS/MS. Excellent sensitivity, linearity, and recoveries were obtained. Of note, during the study, 466 specimens contained OC, with a mean concentration of 2,375 pg/mg. Of these OC positive specimens, only 47 (10%) contained detectable oxymorphone, indicating that methods may need to either monitor for lower concentrations of OM and/or begin to analyze for the presence of noroxycodone, another first-order metabolite of OC.
CLEAN SCREEN DAU mixed mode columns are the most widely used SPE materials for the extraction of licit and illicit drugs. UCT is a leader in the field of sample prep and chromatography consumables. Contact us for all your extraction and analytical questions.