How to clean the sugars (mannitol & inositols) in your heroin & fentanyls' sample

How to clean the sugars (mannitol & inositols) from you heroin and/or fentanyls sample

1.     Place you sample into a separate 10 x 75 mm tube, after verifying you have heroin or fentanyl or a mixture. Use about the same amount you would test if you are not extracting.

2.     In a separate 10 x 75 mm test tube add CHCl2 or if you are batching add sufficient amount of CHCl2 or Chloroform to a larger test tube (13 x 100 mm) and I say use about 1 mL or more. To this test tube add about ? mL to 1 mL of Ammonium Hydroxide. Vortex this for about 30 seconds or more. This is your ANOR reagent.

3.     Go back to your sample test tube (1) and add about 10 drops of 0.5 M HCl or you can use any dilute solution of 0.1 or 0.2 M H2SO4. Use sufficient amount to mix completely. Vortex this solution with your sample till you are satisfied the sample is dissolved. Set aside and do this for your other samples if you are batching.

4.     Go to your ANOR reagent tube (2), vortex briefly. In order to get to the dichloromethane/chloroform it is easier to remove ammonium hydroxide instead of trying to pipet out the solvent. The ammonium is on the top layer so pipet this portion out and discard into a chemical waste container.

5.     To your sample test tube (3) add about ? mL of ANOR solvent. Vortex this mixture. We want only the solvent layer so if you have an emulsion forming briefly centrifuge your test tube for about 30 seconds.

6.     Take a clean pipet and remove the top aqueous layer and discard or save, it’s up to you. You should be left with just the solvent.

7.     Transfer this completely to an aluminum weight boat and place over a hot plate to dry out the solvent. Watch this carefully so you don’t burn up your sample. You should be left with a residue. Re-extract it by adding a small amount of methanol to dissolve your residue. Transfer this to a liner or insert. Don’t over dilute your residue and place it into a GC-MS vial to run. That’s it. You might consider using the dichloromethane/chloroform, but remember to run a blank.

8. Run your sample on the Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer using a mass spectrometer vial. Inject 1 uL or 2 uL based on your solvent expansion.

For those of you who are purist you might substitute baking soda for ammonium hydroxide but it is your choice.