Valorization of Recycled Waste in Green/White Purification and LC-QTOF/MS Analysis of Beverages Adulterated with Incapacitating Drugs

Abstract

Incapacitating drugs constitute a growing threat for the community, since victims may drink adulterated beverages without noticing. A validated eco-friendly/economical purification/analysis kit prototype, along with an LC-QToF/MS method has been developed in coke and mixed fruit-juice, for simultaneous determination of 10 drugs used for incapacitating victims (zaleplone, zolpidem, zopiclone, mephedrone, fentanyl, phenytoin, thiopental, sertraline, ketamine and GHB). A combination of two different waste nut-shells which yielded the highest recovery for these drugs were directly used as adsorbent after grinding and modification and a reusable separation apparatus recycled from waste were utilized for the first time in a toxicological analysis. In the method, after adding the adsorbent on to the sample, pH was adjusted. Following 25-min (min) automatic vortexing for adsorption, matrix was removed easily, using the separation apparatus. After 25-min desorption via cold ultrasonication using 500 μL methanol, a 9.5-min LC-QToF/MS analysis was performed. The validated method in fruit-juice and coke, extraordinarily gave successful results also in urine and saliva. Assessment tools for greenness/whiteness and pictograms confirmed the environmental friendliness of the method kit. © 2025 Elsevier B.V.