Hajar T. Detection and confirmation of cocaine use by chromatographic analysis for methylecgonine in urine. Cm Chem

Methylecgonine is a common metabolite of cocaine in man. We prepared methylecgonine and developed thin-layer chro-matographic and gas-chromatographic methods for its detec-tion in urine. Seventy urine specimens from our drug screen-ing laboratory were tested by our method and by EMIT. Both methods were positive for 26 urines, and both were negative for 42 urines. The other two urines were shown to contain cocaine by GC/MS, and no detectable metabolites. We thus demonstrated that detection of methylecgonine and cocaine is as sensitive a test for cocaine use as EMIT. AddItional Keyphrases: preparation of met hylecgonine Methylecgonine (ME), a major metabolite of cocaine in urine (1, 2), has been shown to be a sensitive indicator of cocaine use (3). ’ Currently, the most commonly used test for detecting cocaine use is EMIT#{174} (Syva), which detects th