Abstract: Cocaine is a well-known drug of abuse which, when ingested nasally or by smoking, undergoes a number of biotransformation and degradation reactions. In the present work, a synthetic analogue of the cocaine metabolite benzoylecgonine was prepared and used as a template molecule in the preparation of a series of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs). Molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction (MISPE) conditions were established under which benzoylecgonine in aqueous samples could be selectively extracted and quantified at clinically relevant concentrations (μg/ml). Under optimised MISPE conditions, recoveries of analyte were high (>70%) and excellent discrimination between imprinted and non-imprinted materials observed
Template and target information: benzoylecgonine, cocaine metabolites
Author keywords: Molecularly imprinted polymers, Solid-phase extraction, Cocaine, Cocaine metabolites, Benzoylecgonine

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