Determination of morphine and codeine in human urine by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

A sensitive and selective gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (gc-ms) method was developed and validated for the determination of morphine and codeine in human urine. the gc-ms conditions were developed. the analysis was carried out on a hp-1ms column (30 m × 0.25 mm,0.25 m) with temperature programming,and helium was used as the carrier gas with a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min. selected ion monitoring (sim) mode was used to quantify morphine and codeine. the derivation solvent,temperature,and time were optimized. a mixed solvent of propionic anhydride and pyridine (5: 2) was finally used for the derivation at 80°c for 3 min. linear calibration curves were obtained in the concentration range of 25-2000.0 ng/ml,with a lower limit of quantification of 25 ng/ml. the intra- and interday precision (rsd) values were below 13%,and the accuracy was in the range 87.2-108.5%. this developed method was successfully used for the determination of morphine and codeine in human urine for forensic identification study. © 2013 xiaoqian zhang et al.