Identification of 2C-B in hair by UHPLC-HRMS/MS. A real forensic case.

Abstract

The analysis of drugs of abuse in hair and other biological matrices of forensic inter- 19 est requires great selectivity and sensitivity. This has been traditionally achieved through target 20 analysis, using one or more analytical methods that include different preanalytical stages, and 21 more complex procedures followed by toxicological laboratories. There is no exception with 2C- 22 series drugs, such as 2C-B, a new psychoactive substance (NPS), which use has emerged and sig- 23 nificantly increased, year by year, in the last decades. Continuously new analytical methods are 24 required to selectively detect and identify these new marketed substances at very low concentra- 25 tions. In this case report, one former case of a polydrug consumer (charged of a crime against pub- 26 lic health in Spain) was reanalyzed in hair matrix. In this reanalysis, 2C-B has been positively de- 27 tected and identified using liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry 28 (UHPLC-HRMS/MS). The most selective analytical UHPLC-HRMS/MS method alongside a uni- 29 versal and simpler pretreatment methodology has opened up more possibilities for detection of 30 substances of different chemical structure and optimization of different HRMS/MS detection ap- 31 proaches allowing the identification of 2-CB in the hair of a real forensic case.