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Mescaline in multi-coloured statuettes
Foreasic Slcience lntemati8d
Forensic Science International
ELSEVIER
82 (1996)
165-169
Case report
Mescaline in multi-coloured
statuettes
N. Fucci*, M. Chiarotti Istituto
di Medicina
Legale
Universita
Cattolica
de1 S.Cuore
di Roma,
Rome,
Italy
Received 12 December 1995; revised 17 May 1996; accepted 20 May 1996
Abstract A case of mescaline seizure is reported: peyotil powder had been hidden inside some multi-coloured statuettes which were submitted for toxicological examination. The identification and quantification of mescaline were performed by gas chromatographic/massspectrometric analysis.
Keywords: Mescaline;
Peyote; Gas chromatography/mass-spectrometry
1. Introduction
Mescaline is the principle psychotropic alkaloid obtainable from the ‘Lophohora williamsii’, a cactus which belongs to the Cactacee family and is also known by the name of ‘peyote’. The above-mentioned cactus grows in the desert zones extending from Northern Central Mexico to Southern Texas and New Mexico [l]. Mescaline is the principal psychotropic alkaloid of peyote constituting more than 30% of the total amount of the latter’s alkaloids (namely pellotine, anhalonidine, anhalamine and lophophorine) with a content varying from 0.5 to 1.5%. The present paper reports an unusual case of mescaline seizure. A parcel coming from Mexico was confiscated at Leonardo Da Vinci Rome Airport (Fig. 1); it contained ten statuettes which represented figures of different kinds and had a total weight of 1.5 kg.
*Corresponding author. 0379-0738/96/$15.00 0 1996 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved PZI SO379-0738(96)01987-l
166
N. Fucci,
M. Chiarotti
Fig. 1. Seizure
I Forensic
Science
of ten multi-coloured
International
statuettes
8.2 (1996)
containing
165-169
mescaline.
2. Case history
In April 1995 a parcel coming from Mexico was intercepted at the Parcel Division of the Leaonardo Da Vinci Rome Airport Customs Station. Some personal belongings and ten clay statuettes representing many-coloured faces were found in it. Policemen disguised as postman delivered the parcel to the addressee who proved to be the father of the sender namely an Italian young man with previous drug addiction history. A preliminary colour test (Marqui’s test) was carried out by the Police laboratory with positive colour reaction.
3. Materials
and methods
3.1. Chemicals
Mescaline was obtained from Sigma (Sigma Chemical Company) at a concentration of 1 mg/ml. Other chemicals and solvent were reagent grades. 3.2. Samples
Mescaline was directly extracted from some of the chloroform at room temperature for 20 min. After chloroform was evaporated to dryness. The residue 500 ,ul of methanol and 1 ~1 was injected into the
statuettes by soaking them in centrifugation of the sample was then reconstituted with gas chromatograph.
N. Fucci,
M. Chiarotti
I Forensic
Science
International
82 (1996)
165-169
167
3.3. Instrumentation A Hewlett Packard Mod. 5890 gas chromatograph fitted with a splitt/splittless injector was equipped with a 12x0.2 mm i.d. capillary column with 0.33-,um film thickness methylsilicone. The following temperature program was used, the initial temperature was 140°C this was increased by lOC/min increments to 260°C 1 min isothermal, then by 20”C/min increments to 280°C 5 min isothermal. The injector temperature was 240°C the carrier gas was helium with a flow rate of 3 ml/min. The capillary column was connected to the mass analyzer (HP 5971A) operating by electronic impact (70 eV) in SIM (selected ion monitoring) and TIC (total ion monitoring) mode.
File operator Acquired Instrument sample Name: Nisc Info Vial Number:
: C:\HP~~\~\DATA\FTJCCI\ : : 16 J"" 95 8:45 : 5971 -RED repsrto inj.lul : 1
am using
AcqWethod
I4ESCAL
SIW
Abundant
TIC:
38OOOC
‘I 260000
REPERTD
STATUINE
240000
;
160000
/
100000
I
80000 60000
!
40000
I /
20000
iims--20
Fig. 2. Chromatogaphic
I:
--zz--~-pattern
..-..-A
6.00
of the sample
a.00
/
-~ -... ---__--.--~
extract
,
10.00
-
(analytical
---. ._
I_. ___
.
T _7_.---.-, __,
12.00
14.00
conditions
16.00
are reported
in the text).
168
N. Fucci,
M. Chiarotti
4. Results
and discussion
I Forensic
Science
international
82 (1996)
165-169
Mescaline was identified and quantitated in the mentioned statuettes at a rate of 1.6% corresponding to 24 mg of pure mescaline in the whole seizure. Quantitative results were obtained employing an external standard of mescaline (1 mg/ml methanol solution). The gas chromatographic analysis of the sample extract is reported in Fig. 2, the mescaline mass fragmentation pattern in shown in Fig. 3.
Library Qua1 i ti ID
Searched
Abundant
: C:\DATABASE\P"W~TOXR.L : 94 : MESCALINE -Scan
417-
(5.814
P325 min):
G>LL02.D 1
(;,i)
8000 I / I
167
6000
4000
2000
0 h-E/Z?--> abundance
#lOSO:
NESCALINE
P325
(*)
I 8000
6000
i I I1
’
Fig. 3. Identification
,.o ,.A A, 7 \ ,/’‘i 1 i/ NH2 of mescaline
by computerized
.searching.
N. Fucci,
M. Chiarotti
I Forensic
Science
International
82 (1996)
165-169
169
Compound identification was performed by comparison of the mass spectra observed at mescaline’s retention time with the reference standard resulting spectra and with the sample contained in the computerized mass spectra library (PMW-T0XR.L). No other drugs were detected in the sample examined. In the illicit traffic, peyotil is most commonly found in the form of ‘mescal buttons’ that is to say the dry discoid brown tops of the above-mentioned cactus. In New Mexico and in the USA this drug is usually taken orally: ‘buttons’ are swallowed whole after having being softened by means of the saliva. At the time of Spanish invasion the use of peyote was particularly widespread among Mexico’s inhabitants. They attached sacred properties to it and utilized it during their rituals. In the second half of the past century the use of peyote spread to the American Indians. Peyotil still holds a first-rate place in some Pan-Indian Christian religions. Peyote is not so spread over Italy and not commonly available on the illicit drug market [2]. Only one case of peyote seizure was reported to have been carried out in Northern Italy in 1995 [3]. References [l]
Recommended Methods for Testing Peyote Cactus/Mescaline Manual for Use by National Narcotics Laboratories, United Nations, NY, 1989. [2] Clarke’s Isolation and Identification of Drugs, 2nd edn., The Pharmaceutical Press, London, 1986. [3] Annual Report on Police Activity. Minister0 delbterno, Dipartimento P.S., Direzione Centrale per i Servizi Antidroga, Roma, 1995, p. 11.
Forensic Science International
ELSEVIER
82 (1996)
165-169
Case report
Mescaline in multi-coloured
statuettes
N. Fucci*, M. Chiarotti Istituto
di Medicina
Legale
Universita
Cattolica
de1 S.Cuore
di Roma,
Rome,
Italy
Received 12 December 1995; revised 17 May 1996; accepted 20 May 1996
Abstract A case of mescaline seizure is reported: peyotil powder had been hidden inside some multi-coloured statuettes which were submitted for toxicological examination. The identification and quantification of mescaline were performed by gas chromatographic/massspectrometric analysis.
Keywords: Mescaline;
Peyote; Gas chromatography/mass-spectrometry
1. Introduction
Mescaline is the principle psychotropic alkaloid obtainable from the ‘Lophohora williamsii’, a cactus which belongs to the Cactacee family and is also known by the name of ‘peyote’. The above-mentioned cactus grows in the desert zones extending from Northern Central Mexico to Southern Texas and New Mexico [l]. Mescaline is the principal psychotropic alkaloid of peyote constituting more than 30% of the total amount of the latter’s alkaloids (namely pellotine, anhalonidine, anhalamine and lophophorine) with a content varying from 0.5 to 1.5%. The present paper reports an unusual case of mescaline seizure. A parcel coming from Mexico was confiscated at Leonardo Da Vinci Rome Airport (Fig. 1); it contained ten statuettes which represented figures of different kinds and had a total weight of 1.5 kg.
*Corresponding author. 0379-0738/96/$15.00 0 1996 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved PZI SO379-0738(96)01987-l
166
N. Fucci,
M. Chiarotti
Fig. 1. Seizure
I Forensic
Science
of ten multi-coloured
International
statuettes
8.2 (1996)
containing
165-169
mescaline.
2. Case history
In April 1995 a parcel coming from Mexico was intercepted at the Parcel Division of the Leaonardo Da Vinci Rome Airport Customs Station. Some personal belongings and ten clay statuettes representing many-coloured faces were found in it. Policemen disguised as postman delivered the parcel to the addressee who proved to be the father of the sender namely an Italian young man with previous drug addiction history. A preliminary colour test (Marqui’s test) was carried out by the Police laboratory with positive colour reaction.
3. Materials
and methods
3.1. Chemicals
Mescaline was obtained from Sigma (Sigma Chemical Company) at a concentration of 1 mg/ml. Other chemicals and solvent were reagent grades. 3.2. Samples
Mescaline was directly extracted from some of the chloroform at room temperature for 20 min. After chloroform was evaporated to dryness. The residue 500 ,ul of methanol and 1 ~1 was injected into the
statuettes by soaking them in centrifugation of the sample was then reconstituted with gas chromatograph.
N. Fucci,
M. Chiarotti
I Forensic
Science
International
82 (1996)
165-169
167
3.3. Instrumentation A Hewlett Packard Mod. 5890 gas chromatograph fitted with a splitt/splittless injector was equipped with a 12x0.2 mm i.d. capillary column with 0.33-,um film thickness methylsilicone. The following temperature program was used, the initial temperature was 140°C this was increased by lOC/min increments to 260°C 1 min isothermal, then by 20”C/min increments to 280°C 5 min isothermal. The injector temperature was 240°C the carrier gas was helium with a flow rate of 3 ml/min. The capillary column was connected to the mass analyzer (HP 5971A) operating by electronic impact (70 eV) in SIM (selected ion monitoring) and TIC (total ion monitoring) mode.
File operator Acquired Instrument sample Name: Nisc Info Vial Number:
: C:\HP~~\~\DATA\FTJCCI\ : : 16 J"" 95 8:45 : 5971 -RED repsrto inj.lul : 1
am using
AcqWethod
I4ESCAL
SIW
Abundant
TIC:
38OOOC
‘I 260000
REPERTD
STATUINE
240000
;
160000
/
100000
I
80000 60000
!
40000
I /
20000
iims--20
Fig. 2. Chromatogaphic
I:
--zz--~-pattern
..-..-A
6.00
of the sample
a.00
/
-~ -... ---__--.--~
extract
,
10.00
-
(analytical
---. ._
I_. ___
.
T _7_.---.-, __,
12.00
14.00
conditions
16.00
are reported
in the text).
168
N. Fucci,
M. Chiarotti
4. Results
and discussion
I Forensic
Science
international
82 (1996)
165-169
Mescaline was identified and quantitated in the mentioned statuettes at a rate of 1.6% corresponding to 24 mg of pure mescaline in the whole seizure. Quantitative results were obtained employing an external standard of mescaline (1 mg/ml methanol solution). The gas chromatographic analysis of the sample extract is reported in Fig. 2, the mescaline mass fragmentation pattern in shown in Fig. 3.
Library Qua1 i ti ID
Searched
Abundant
: C:\DATABASE\P"W~TOXR.L : 94 : MESCALINE -Scan
417-
(5.814
P325 min):
G>LL02.D 1
(;,i)
8000 I / I
167
6000
4000
2000
0 h-E/Z?--> abundance
#lOSO:
NESCALINE
P325
(*)
I 8000
6000
i I I1
’
Fig. 3. Identification
,.o ,.A A, 7 \ ,/’‘i 1 i/ NH2 of mescaline
by computerized
.searching.
N. Fucci,
M. Chiarotti
I Forensic
Science
International
82 (1996)
165-169
169
Compound identification was performed by comparison of the mass spectra observed at mescaline’s retention time with the reference standard resulting spectra and with the sample contained in the computerized mass spectra library (PMW-T0XR.L). No other drugs were detected in the sample examined. In the illicit traffic, peyotil is most commonly found in the form of ‘mescal buttons’ that is to say the dry discoid brown tops of the above-mentioned cactus. In New Mexico and in the USA this drug is usually taken orally: ‘buttons’ are swallowed whole after having being softened by means of the saliva. At the time of Spanish invasion the use of peyote was particularly widespread among Mexico’s inhabitants. They attached sacred properties to it and utilized it during their rituals. In the second half of the past century the use of peyote spread to the American Indians. Peyotil still holds a first-rate place in some Pan-Indian Christian religions. Peyote is not so spread over Italy and not commonly available on the illicit drug market [2]. Only one case of peyote seizure was reported to have been carried out in Northern Italy in 1995 [3]. References [l]
Recommended Methods for Testing Peyote Cactus/Mescaline Manual for Use by National Narcotics Laboratories, United Nations, NY, 1989. [2] Clarke’s Isolation and Identification of Drugs, 2nd edn., The Pharmaceutical Press, London, 1986. [3] Annual Report on Police Activity. Minister0 delbterno, Dipartimento P.S., Direzione Centrale per i Servizi Antidroga, Roma, 1995, p. 11.