Opium alkaloids capillary

Bjornsdottir, L, and Hansen, S. H. (1995). Determination of opium-alkaloids in opium by capillary electrophoresis. J. Pharm. Biomed. Anal. 13, 687—693. 

Capillary electrophoresis is suitable for use to separate a wide spectrum of both large and small biological molecules. This method was used for analysis of opium alkaloids such as thebanine, codeine, morphine, papaverine and narcotine. 

The opium alkaloids have engaged the interest of scientists since the isolation of morphine by Sertlirner in 1806. The Isolation, characterization and quantification of these alkaloids have been a continuing challenge. Gas chromatography of opium alkaloids has been performed i.a. for the analysis of the alkaloids present in the crude drug itself, especially for the quantitative determination of morphine, as well as for the analysis of opium alkaloids, mainly morphine - and heroin - in biological materials. Most studies have so far been carried out with packed columns, only a limited number with capillary columns. 

Lombardo-Aghi M, Cruces-Bianco C, Garcfa-Campana AM (2009) Capillary zone electrophoresis with diode-array detection Iot the analysis of local anaesthetics and opium alkaloids in urine samples. J Chromatogr B Analyt Technol Biomed Life Sci 877(8-9) 833-836... 

Fakhari AR, Nojavan S, Ebrahimi SN, Evtaihuis Cl (2010) Optimized ultrasound-assisted extraction procedure for the analysis of opium alkaloids in papaver plants by cyclodextrin-modilied capillary electrophoresis. J Sep Sci 33(14) 2153-2159... 

Lin X, Wang J, Li L, Wang X, Lu H, Xie Z (2007) Separation and determination of five major opium alkaloids with mixed mode of hydrophilic/cation-exchange monolith by pressurized capillary electrochromatography. J Sep Sci 30(17) 3011—3017... 

Lurie et al. used a combination of HP-pCD and DM-pCD in a dynamically coated capillary (to increase the strength and stability of EOF) for separation of opium alkaloids in opium gum and latex [49]. 

Reddy MM, Suresh V, Jayashanker G, Rao BS, Satin RK (2003) Application of capillary zone electrophoresis in the separation and determination of the principal gum opium alkaloids. Electrophoresis 24 1437-1441. doi 10.1002/elps.200390185... 

Detection in CE has to face two challenging problems, namely, small amounts of analytes injected and tiny peak volumes. To the present, UV-vis detector is, by far, the most widely adopted despite the short internal diameter of the capillary limits the concentration sensitivity. Among the different modes of CE, CZE coupled with UV detection is the most widely found for the analysis of opium alkaloids in different matrices [107-111]. Nevertheless, to avoid the major disadvantage of CE related to its lack of sensitivity compared to HPLC, various approaches to this sensitivity limitation have been developed, mostly by the use of preconcentratiOTi procedures such as sweeping techniques [112, 113] or held-amplihed sample injection (FASl) [107,108]. 

Liquid chromatography is two decades more mature than capillary electrophoresis. As trained electropherographers become more common, more separations will be handled by electrophoresis. For example, electrophoresis displaced liquid chromatography as the preferred method for forensic analysis of alkaloids in opium and heroin.51 The enabling technology for this application was dynamic coating of the capillary between runs to eliminate adsorption of analytes on the silica surface and decrease variations in migration times to less than 0.5%. 

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