DOI: https://doi.org/10.55373/mjchem.v26i5.477

Keywords: ATS drugs; drug abusers; nail samples; GC-FID; LOD; LOQ

Abstract

Blood and urine are the common and conventional biological samples to determine drug abuse. Drug analysis in nail samples has rapidly emerged as an alternative to normal biological specimens to detect drugs. The objective of this study is to determine the presence of Amphetamine-Type Stimulants (ATS) drug from the nail samples and to validate the method of ATS drug analysis in nail samples of drug abusers by using Gas Chromatography-Flame Ionization Detector (GC-FID). 88 male nail samples were collected from Narcotic Addiction Relief Centre in Sabah and Rehabilitation Centre in Johor. The identification of ATS drugs in the nail samples were analysed by using alkaline digestion method with GC-FID. Method for nail analysis were successfully analyzed and validated with the assessment of the following parameters: accuracy linearity of calibration curve, limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ). This study indicates that the highest content of ATS drug detected in nail samples was MDA analyte which was detected in 83 out of 88 subjects. The second most detected ATS drug was AMP analyte, followed by MDEA, MBDB and MAMP. The least amount of ATS drug detected in nail samples was the MDMA analyte detected only in 18 out of 88 subjects. MDMA showed the lowest LOD and LOQ which are 0.0823 ppm and 2.4943 ppm respectively. While AMP shows the highest LOD and LOQ with the concentration of 0.1566 ppm and 4.7465 ppm respectively. The application of alkaline digestion method was effective in quantifying ATS drugs in nail samples. Furthermore, the nail samples also very stable and can be kept for a longer time period and difficult to alter its composition. There is no doubt that nail analysis can provide valuable and valid information on previous drug use in the fields of forensic toxicology.