Jan Schuberth

Morphine intake from poppy seed food

Morphine was determined in commercially available poppy seed and seed cake as well as in urine from healthy normal human adults 3 and 15 h after ingestion of poppy seed cake. The following morphine concentrations were determined: between 374 ±51 and 9.4 ± 1.0 μmol kg−1 poppy seed of different brands, 290 ± 11 μmol kg−1 poppy seed paste, 1.43 ± 0.07 and 0.53 ± 0.15 μmol litre−1 urine sampled 3 and 15 h, respectively, after ingestion of two cakes and 0.67 ± 0.17 and 0.30 ± 0.06 μmol litre−1 urine sampled 3 and 15 h, respectively, after ingestion of one cake. It is concluded that a positive finding of morphine in the urine from a person suspected of heroin abuse calls on some attention due to possible accidental morphine intake from poppy seed food.

EFFECTS OF 2‐DIMETHYLAMINOETHANOL (DEANOL) ON THE METABOLISM OF CHOLINE IN PLASMA

Abstract— The effects of chronic oral administration of 30 mM‐dimethylaminoethanol (DMAC) on the concentrations and turnover of putative acetylcholine precursors in the plasma and the CSF have been investigated. Choline (Ch) and its labelled variants were measured by gas chromatography‐mass fragmentography and lecithin, lysolecithin and sphingomyelin by spectrophotometric methods following separation by thin layer chromatography. No effects of DMAE on the phospholipids in the plasma of rabbits were found. The concentrations of Ch in the plasma of humans and rabbits and in the CSF of rabbits increased during the DMAE treatment. In the mouse labelled with deuterium Ch from the diet, DMAE increased the dilution of deuterium Ch in the plasma. Ch given by mouth to rabbits in the same dose as DMAE had no effects on plasma Ch. Intravenous infusion of 0.15 M‐Ch at a rate of 5 μM·kg−1·min−1 for 60 min increased the concentrations of Ch in the CSF as well as in the plasma. It is concluded that DMAE increases plasma Ch by enhancing the formation of endogenous Ch, perhaps through the base exchange reaction. Whether or not DMAE also increases the availability of Ch directly in the brain cannot be decided.

Post-mortem test for low-boiling arson residues of gasoline by gas chromatography—ion-trap mass spectrometry

Using headspace capillary GC-MS with ion-trap detection, the additive in motor gasoline, MTBE (methyl tert.-butyl ether), was spotted in the blood from five victims of arsons set off with motor gasoline. In the brain from a death of a fire started by ignited isoparaffins, a number of branched C8 alkanes were found. Since 80 control samples of accidental fires, started by non-chemical means, tested negative for MTBE or isoparaffins, the data suggested that post-mortem exams for low-boiling organics may offer a new concept for arson analysis.

Is urine a suitable material for the preliminary screening of drugs in autopsy cases

This paper reports a survey of drug screening in the urine specimens of 45 autopsy cases whose livers contained medicinal substances. The extractions were carried out by a solid phase/liquid technique and the analyses by thin-layer chromatography. Nine compounds out of 43 actually present in the liver were not detectable in the urine; eight cases with high drug concentrations in the liver and also in the blood would have evaded the intoxication suspicion had the urine been used as the only material for the chemical survey. On the basis of these data we advocate that the preliminary drug screening of medical-examiner cases not be carried out on urine alone.

Antagonistic effects of isovalerate and glycine on plasma choline levels in rabbits.

Abstract Infusion into rabbits of glycine increased the concentration of plasma choline while infusion of neutralized isovaleric acid which conjugates glycine caused decreased levels. It is suggested that these effects are due to differences in the availability of glycine, convertible to serine which subsequently displaces choline from phospholipids in the base exchange reaction.