UK leads the way in ‘legal high’ analysis

A team at the University of Lincoln, UK, is leading the way in new research aimed at detecting the vast amount of substances available on the legal highs market.

The method developed at Lincoln has now been incorporated into a United Nations manual for use by drug analysis labs all over the world. It describes a microcrystalline test for the analysis of benzylpiperazine (BZP), a modern designer drug often used as a substitute for “ecstasy”.

Leonie Elie  from the School of Life Sciences at Lincoln said: “In microcrystalline testing you compare shapes of crystals obtained from unknown substances to those developed with known standards. Forensic scientists have been using this technique with confidence for many decades but the knowledge is lost when it doesn’t get passed on to the newer generations. Unfortunately, nowadays most drug analysis labs seem to prefer using instrumental techniques rather than relying on empirical methods like microcrystalline testing. With our modernising approach we can continue to show how reliable this seemingly simple method is.”

Microcrystalline tests are quick and simple chemical tests which require only a small amount of sample and a microscope to observe the resulting crystals. The test is a simple reaction where small crystals are formed between a drug sample and a reagent - a chemical specifically chosen to react with the suspected drug. The test has been used successfully for decades aiding analysis of seized samples of suspected drugs of abuse, but has been abandoned over the years in favour of more sophisticated analytical instruments.

The Lincoln group teamed up with Dr Gareth Cave from Nottingham Trent University and, using X-ray diffraction, revealed the specific molecular arrangement in two of their microcrystals – a technique ideal for crystal analysis but nearly impossible to use on microcrystals due to their small size.