RESEARCH ON STEROIDS

This article examines the research methods on nandrolone and methandienone. The most sensitive reagents were selected to differentiate and identify these drugs. Medicinal products were identified by gas chromatography methods with mass- selective detector and gas chromatography method with PID detector. In addition to determining the qualitative characteristics of medicinal products by means of gas chromatography with PID detector, a quantitative analysis of the test substances was carried out. The main absorption bands characteristic of the investigated medicinal products was determined by IR spectroscopy. In this regard, the development of effective approaches to forensic research and methods of determination on potent anabolic steroids in various objects of forensic chemical examination with the use of thin-layer chromatography, gas chromatography with mass-selective and flame-ionization detectors is relevant as the risks of their abuse in the illegal market and the availability of counterfeit products (with unknown active substance content) on the legal market are not excluded. A number of methods that are most effective for use while examining materials, substances and products include various types of chromatography (TLC, GC, GC-MS) in combination with the method of IR-spectroscopy, provide an opportunity to establish the structure of the analyte and identify it, and also determine the concentration. The predominance of these methods is in simplicity and expressiveness. They do not require special reagents and solvents, there is no complex sample preparation for them, and their definition is not affected by fillers, such as sugar, starch, stearates and sodium carbonate. Thus, as a result of a number of studies of anabolic steroids of nandrolone and methandienone by different physical and chemical methods, we can conclude that the complex application of these methods allows to conduct expert research, to determine the qualitative and quantitative composition of substances and mixtures, as well as to solve diagnostic and identification issues.