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NEWS: Forty-second ecstasy tablet test developed

Soopy

Bluelighter
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Mar 21, 2001
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Forty-second ecstasy tablet test developed


10:15 08 October 03

NewScientist.com news service

A new technique that rapidly analyses ecstasy tablets could provide an early warning system for rogue pills and also police help trace illicit manufacturers.

The method uses Raman spectroscopy to produce a fingerprint for each ecstasy tablet. This reveals the concentration of the active ingredient MDMA plus the identity of any toxic contaminants.

.........

The technique is fast - analysing a pill takes about 40 seconds. In contrast, the gas chromatography technique currently used to analyse drugs takes at least a day


New Scientist


What every raver needs ;)
 
Here's the original paper

Composition profiling of seized ecstasy tablets by Raman spectroscopy


This subject has been discussed elsewhere following release of the paper. I looked further into this and concluded that Raman is only good for looking at surface composition. Most ecstasy tablets are far from homogenous, therefore surface reflection is not necessarily uniform. I'm surprised New Scientist has published this. Perhaps more work has been done since the original article but I can't see how the technique can be improved beyond limits of the spectrum used in Raman spec.

Sorry if I've dampened your enthusiasm. By all means prove me wrong, but I think if you read the paper carefully you'll see they define these limitation in their own summary :\


Couple of other papers;

Application of SERS spectroscopy to the identification of (3,4-methylenedioxy)amphetamine in forensic samples utilizing matrix stabilized silver halides

Rapid analysis of ecstasy and related phenethylamines in seized tablets by Raman spectroscopy

The basic principle of Raman is to measure the scattering of light whose energy corresponds to vibrational energies of molecules (definition: Harris; Quantitative Chemical Analysis)

One of the reasons Raman spec would be a good approach is due to the basic simplicity of the procedure. red/blue/green laser diodes are cheap and it's reasonable to expect a compact unit would also be affordable. However, I would like to first see the Raman spec. results of a hundred different tablets compared to the GC/MS analysis.
 
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phase_dancer said:
...concluded that Raman is only good for looking at surface composition. Most ecstasy tablets are far from homogenous, therefore surface reflection is not necessarily uniform....

Is there any restrictions on the method that disallows crushing the pill to create a greater surface area and perform the procedure over the entire mass? Could another way to possibly get a more accurate reading be to test multiple pills and take an average?
 
I see no reason why not, other than being both more fiddly for the analyst and it would destroy police evidence if used as an on-site test. The simplicity of popping a pill into a chamber and click is pretty desirable in field testing. The sample isn't destroyed, and police instantly know what they are dealing with i.e. risk factors in handling/decontaminating.

But as for the user, well I think it wouldn't probably be that much more fiddly than using reagents. If someone with the interfacing and programming skills would like to collaborate, I'm sure a prototype could be constructed. VIS/IR photonics are not expensive.
 
Is it likely to be inexpensive enough that projects like enlighten or ravesafe would be able to afford them with a small grant or contributions?
 
Possibly not. With the minds around these parts, I'm sure a start could be made. Of course, to claim something is reliable and market it as such requires a lot of input and probably money......but to experiment with the principles is certainly not impossible IMO.

I'm not sure whether too many Ravesafe groups (Australia) would be able to - at this stage at least - back such an idea. Lots of politics here. I can't speak for Enlighten or Ravesafe, but I think any device which improved current testing methods would at least get the
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Just remember the distance and dollars that come between between a research paper and an established analytical instrument on the shelf, too :)

BigTrancer :)
 
Here's the authors page. He certainly seems to have done a few things with Raman spectroscopy

DR STEVEN BELL, Lecturer in Physical Chemistry

His email is also given on the page, so if you have any questions after reading his article, why not direct them straight to the man himself.



[NOTE: Same topic thread merged, starting next post; p_d]
 
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NEWS: 42nd ecstasy tablet test developed

Thought this might have been posted before but can't find it elsewhere... just received via email...
D&AWg %)

Forty-second ecstasy tablet test developed



NewScientist.com news service

A new technique that rapidly analyses ecstasy tablets could provide an early
warning system for rogue pills and also police help trace illicit
manufacturers.

The method uses Raman spectroscopy to produce a fingerprint for each ecstasy
tablet. This reveals the concentration of the active ingredient MDMA plus
the identity of any toxic contaminants.

Researchers at Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland applied the
technique to 1500 ecstasy pills and found that the dose of MDMA in each
tablet varied enormously - by as much as five-fold. But they also discovered
that none of the pills contained other toxic substances.

"However, the variation in MDMA concentrations that we found could
themselves be very dangerous," says Steven Bell, whose team performed the work.

Laser light

In modern Raman spectroscopy, laser light is bounced off a sample and
analysed. About one photon in a million is absorbed by the molecules in the
material and is re-emitted at a different and characteristic wavelength.

The technique is fast - analysing a pill takes about 40 seconds. In
contrast, the gas chromatography technique currently used to analyse drugs
takes at least a day.

Forensic detectives are expected to be amongst the first to adopt the
technique. It will allow the screening of vast numbers of pills and
potentially link the tablets to their manufacturers. This could allow the
authorities to build up a more comprehensive picture of the ecstasy
production and distribution network.

Bell's work has already provided useful intelligence - that ecstasy
production still appears to be a cottage industry. Out of the 1500 pills
analysed by Bell's team, all but one were most likely made by different
manufacturers, even though 90 per cent were stamped with the same Mitsubishi
logo.

Some could have been made by the same person but to a different recipe, Bell
says, but overall "it implies that there are lots of different manufacturers
producing ecstasy".

The researchers now hope to miniaturise the equipment. At present it is
about two-thirds the size of a washing machine, but manufacturers are
working on shrinking it to the size of a shoebox.

This type of device could then be used on the street or in ports and
airports to quickly analyse suspect substances.

Alan Ryder, from the National University of Ireland in Galway, says that
Bell's work is likely to prove "especially useful to the authorities". Ryder
is also adapting Raman spectroscopy for use as a crime fighting tool.
"Eventually the police will be able to take the lab into a squad car with
them," he says.

Journal reference: The Analyst (DOI: 10.1039/b308312h)

Danny Penman



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To [un]subscribe, email the message text,
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In another thread that was very recently started started on this topic (but is now closed), stated that

Out of the 1500 pills analysed by Bell's team, all but one were most likely made by different manufacturers, even though 90 per cent were stamped with the same Mitsubishi logo.

I think that is either very diturbing or incorrect. That is an astonishing number to say that approx. 1350 pills with the same logo all came from different makers. Granted that there would have been many different colours/shapes/year in that mixture, but i would not have thought that there would have been that much varience in the pills tested.

Or am i just reading the quote wrong?

The other thread is [Merged with this one; p_d]
 
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Raman technology progresses

A couple of updates relating to Raman spec.

One of the biggest drawbacks to Raman spec was the need for bulky argon ion lasers. Most of these laser tubes produce light at 2 wavelengths; 514.5nm and 488nm. I have an old NEC argon tube. If the beam is refracted through the appropriate beam splitter, prism, or off a CD surface, it produces a green/blue aqua coloured dot at 514.5 and a separate deep blue but less visible dot at 488nm. The later is a beautiful shade of blue, but is much less visible to the eye than the longer wavelength colour. This is because as the human eye shows greatest sensitivity to green.

The argon wavelength of 488nm is used for Raman spec. which meant many argon ion laser tubes were employed for this and other related purposes. As the 488nm wavelength just happens to be in the middle of the most "usable" part of the spectrum, technology has focused upon 488nm, making it the standard throughout industry. Any semiconductor laser would have to be at least very close to 488nm. If not, then 30 years of tabulated readings would have to be redone.

I mentioned availability of blue laser diodes. Much has happened over the past couple of years in this field. Making a blue laser diode is a far greater challenge than making an infrared or dark red laser. One of the other mods could undoubtedly elaborate on this better than I could hope to, but it probably suffices to say that the principles dictate that its far easier to make longer wavelength diodes.

How green, blue, purple and ultraviolet laser diodes are achieved is by frequency doubling the light. Using infrared or red pump diodes, exciter semiconductor chips, and sophisticated optics, crystals and gratings often contained on one substrate. Many companies have recently released or announced release of small low power consuming laser diodes working at the desired 488nm.

When coupled with CCD detectors, this potentially means the physical size of Raman spec gear is more than substantially reduced. The power consumption for diode assemblies can be 2 or more orders of magnitude better. It seems much of the resurgence in interest for this form of analysis is largely because of these reasons.

From: Photonics Spectra, Sept. 2003

Solid-State Lasers Are Gunning for Argon-Ion's Place
The venerable air-cooled argon-ion laser appears to be the next target on solid-state technology's hit list.

by Breck Hitz, Senior Technical Editor

Frequency-doubled diode lasers that produce blue light at or near 488 nm have emerged over the past couple of years, potentially affecting the multibillion-dollar instrumentation market based on the air-cooled argon-ion laser that has evolved over the past two decades.

Developed at Spectra-Physics in the early 1970s by a group led by John Goldsborough, the air-cooled argon-ion laser has found broad applications, including in the medical field, in graphics and in semiconductor inspection. Goldsborough, now retired, recently recalled that the first air-cooled ion laser was a prototype developed for a medical company's cell sorter. Indeed, 30 years later, cell sorting has grown into a major application of the argon-ion laser...

Unfortunately the online version stops there. The mag article is a wonderful in-depth review of designs and principles (where manufacturers have revealed) and a list of current world suppliers.

Here's a pic of Sapphire's compact 488nm laser from

Coherent Inc.


72Sapphire488-200.jpg



This article, although not drug related, nevertheless outlines the usefulness of Raman fingerprinting in leading edge technology,especially when examining integrity of nano-sized objects and particles. More universally relevant excerpts:

Raman brings Nano up to size

During the past 20 years, all things nano have really hit their vogue within the advanced materials industry. Nanostructured, nanocyrstalline, nanoscale, nanophase: if a material's name includes the prefix indicating microstructure on the nano level, scientists want to study it, and companies want to produce it. The size of the crystallites that comprise them is what separates nanomaterials from conventional polycrystalline materials. The crystals that make up nanomaterials are extremely small. A typical nanocrystal is about one millionth of a centimetre in diameter....


...The researchers have studied nanomaterials using Raman spectroscopy to get information on the chemical bond arrangement and short-range order in nanocrystalline and uncrystallized materials, said Philippe Colomban, who heads the group.

The usual X-ray diffraction techniques aren't helpful when analysing nanomaterials because the techniques cannot properly distinguish their small sizes. Raman spectroscopy, which uses the Raman scattering effect, on the other hand has proved its capabilities in analysing these minuscule materials. That is because most of the properties controlled by particle size — such as electrical conductivity and mechanical strength — are correlated to Raman parameters, which can be used to predict the properties, Colomban said...

Scattered photons shift wavelength

Raman spectroscopy is a form of vibration spectroscopy much like infrared spectroscopy. Raman bands result from a change in a molecule's polarizability. When a scientist impinges a beam of light onto a sample, the material absorbs and scatters photons. The majority of the scattered photons undergo Rayleigh scattering in which the photons stay on the same wavelength. The sky is blue thanks to Rayleigh scattering, caused by the scattering of sunlight off the molecules of the atmosphere.

But a tiny portion of the scattered radiation is shifted to a different wavelength. The wavelength-shifted photons are called Raman scatter. The Raman effect is named after the physicist C.V. Raman, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930 for his role in identifying the scatter effect in liquids. Two years later, scientists identified it in crystals.

Unique fingerprinting tool

Willes Weber, a senior staff technical specialist at Ford Motor Co. in Detroit, explains the Raman effect as the scattering of light by a medium, say a sample of diamond, accompanied by a frequency shift of the light associated with the excitation in the same medium. "The spectrum of frequency-shifted light generally gives a unique fingerprint for the scattering materials and can identify sample composition and other properties such as phase state, degree of crystallinity, crystal size and orientation, strain, and isotopic composition," Weber said. "Scientists can also observe electronic and magnetic excitations in certain materials, which gives them more information about their samples," he added....

Industries turn to Raman

But the use of Raman scattering is growing today in industries across the board, Weber said. During the 1970s and 1980s, typical Raman instruments were large-frame, gas-discharge lasers and photomultiplier detectors. Industry showed little interest in using Raman scattering for routine sample analyses because of the size of the instruments and the difficulty and cost of maintaining them.

In the 1990s, technological advances made relatively inexpensive Raman instruments possible. According to Weber, scientists now use the instruments for such disparate industrial applications as monitoring chemical processes in real time, controlling manufacturing quality, and monitoring the concentrations of oxygen, carbon dioxide, and anaesthesia gases exhaled by patients undergoing surgery.

Clearly the usefulness of Raman scatter in the scientific realm is set to rise even higher in the coming years.


The point to posting this info is to hopefully stimulate some thought and comments from others. The principles of Raman spec, as said are simple. Software development from scratch should present few problems, making experimental setups at home quite within affordable reach. If anyone is interested, I've quite a bit on the deeper workings and principles.
 
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