2023

Generic conditions for electromembrane extraction (EME) of polar bases were developed. Now that prototype equipment is available to other research laboratories, generic conditions are highly relevant to harmonize method implementation and further development. A suitable supported liquid membrane was created by mixing 2-undecanone with deep eutectic solvents and ionic carries to extract compounds in the range -2.0 < logP < 4.5.

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Nitazenes are resurfacing on the black market after more than 70 years hiding in the cupboards of drug development laboratories. These highly potent synthetic opioids are partially unregulated and generally not included in toxicology screenings. In this work, liquid-phase microextraction (LPME) was used to develop a quantitative method for rapid determination of nine nitazene analogs from whole blood.

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Want to learn about the basics of electromembrane extraction (EME)? This tutorial discusses the fundamental theory behind EME, how the prototype equipment is constructed, common obstacles encountered with EME and walks you through some relevant applications.

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Peptides are considered highly polar substances and therefore not inherently ideal for extraction in EME. Previously, this has been overcome by introducing ionic carriers into the supported liquid membrane, however at the expense of EME system stability due to high currents. This paper, for the first time, demonstrates the use of pure phosphate solvents for extraction of peptides using EME. Read more about the interesting findings in the link below.  

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Electromembrane extraction has been considered a novel extraction technique for many years, and the lack of commercial equipment has limited its use to research laboratories. Now that commercial prototype equipment is available, the interest for routine applications is steadily increasing. This paper presents an EME method for extraction of 13 opioids from oral fluid.

Read the paper and find out how EME compared to the routine method employed at St. Olav University Hospital.

It should be easy for someone interested in EME to simply “have a go at it”. In reality, method development is often cumbersome and dependent on many factors such as analyte characteristics and extraction conditions. Finding generic extraction conditions which are applicable for a wide variety of analytes has therefore been an intensive research area at our group. This paper investigates the behavior of 96 basic substances in different extraction system to find the best generic liquid membranes for EME.

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Amphetamines are commonly used for managing ADHD and narcolepsy, but are unfortunately also the most common drugs of abuse world-wide. During synthesis, a racemic mixture is produced, where in illicit preparations, both enantiomers are present, while the most pharmacologically active enantiomer is isolated in medicinal products. This creates an avenue for identifying recreational users through the detection of both enantiomers in urine. In this work, a validated EME method was developed for the extraction of both amphetamine enantiomers and compared to the routine method used at St. Olav University Hospital. This paper is an engaging read for both newcomers and experienced EME users.

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A high-throughput method with electromembrane extraction and UHPLC-MS/MS was developed for the simultaneous determination of 20 tryptamine analogs in whole blood. Tryptamines are psychoactive substances, and may not be discovered in routine toxicology screening due to the diversity in structural analogs.  We here present a single-step green sample preparation procedure which solves this issue. 

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