A METHOD FOR THE RAPID ISOLATION AND SPECTROGRAPHIC MEASUREMENT OF COCAINE FROM BRAIN TISSUE

¹ From the Spectrographic Laboratory of the Medical Center and the Department of Surgery of the University of California Medical School

By means of a spectrochemical method which has high sesitivity and good reliability for measuring one milligram or less of cocaine, a critical study of the details of some of the reported methods of analysis of alkaloids has been made. The sources of errors in these methods were analyzed and a technique developed which has given high yields of cocaine from tissues in vitro. Analyzing for 1 mgm. of cocaine hydrochloride in 25 grams of tissue, the technique finally adopted gave consistent yields, when corrected, of approximately 90 per cent, with an estimated error of 10 per cent. The method has been found applicable to quantities as small as 0.05 mgm. of cocaine in experiments in vivo. Isolation and measurement required from seven to nine hours.