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Surface‐activated chemical ionization combined with electrospray ionization and mass spectrometry for the analysis of cannabinoids in biological samples. Part I: Analysis of 11‐nor‐9‐carboxytetrahydro‐cannabinol
Author(s) -
Conti Matteo,
Tazzari Valeria,
Bertona Maria,
Brambilla Maura,
Brambilla Paolo
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
rapid communications in mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.528
H-Index - 136
eISSN - 1097-0231
pISSN - 0951-4198
DOI - 10.1002/rcm.5029
Subject(s) - chemistry , electrospray ionization , cannabinol , orbitrap , mass spectrometry , chromatography , electrospray , extractive electrospray ionization , desorption electrospray ionization , chemical ionization , ionization , analytical chemistry (journal) , ambient ionization , triple quadrupole mass spectrometer , tandem mass spectrometry , selected reaction monitoring , protein mass spectrometry , ion , organic chemistry , cannabinoid , biochemistry , receptor
Recently, electrospray ionization mass spectroscopy (ESI‐MS) has been widely used for the identification of drugs of abuse and their metabolites in biological samples. However, the sensitivity and selectivity of this technique are commonly inadequate for the analysis of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and its metabolites at very low levels, such as those sometimes required in forensic and clinical‐legal applications. We coupled electrospray ionization and surface‐activated chemical ionization (ESI‐SACI) to various types of mass analyzers (ion trap, triple quadrupole and orbitrap) (ESI‐SACI‐MS) to improve the detection of 11‐nor‐9‐carboxy‐tetrahydrocannabinol (THC‐COOH), the most common marker of THC abuse. The benefits of this approach in terms of sensitivity and selectivity compared with a common ESI‐MS approach are clearly demonstrated. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.