Development of an enantioselective bioanalytical method for clephedron and its metabolites using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry

In this study we report our efforts to develop an enantioselective method for detection one of the drugs of abuse clephedrone (1-(4-chlorophenyl)-2-(methylamino)-1-propanone (4-chloromethcathinone, 4-CMC, para-chloro-methcathinone)) and its phase-1 metabolites in human biological fluids. We initially screened Clephedrone using several stationary and mobile phases.Methanol and ammonium bicarbonate buffer in a 90:10(v:v) (buffer pH-11.0) and acetonitrile-water 97:3 with the addition of 5 mM ammonium acetate. were used as the mobile phase in the high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometer experiment. The major question addressed in this thesis was: Can the identification of clephedrone enantiomers and their metabolites in blood, urine and OF samples be achieved through the application of high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry? To address this problem an experiment was conducted using the human samples. This study demonstrates that high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry can successfully be used to identify clephedrone, its enantiomers, and their metabolites in the mentioned samples.