Development of the analytical methods used for the qualitative, quantitative analysis and source determination in the seized ecstasy tablets

The production of illegal synthetic tablets with stimulant properties has been increasing rapidly from day by day in the world. Furthermore, the variation and amounts of the substances put into the synthetic tablets have been changing as well. Methods for synthesis of active substances used in the illegal synthetic tablets show an enormous variation. Moreover, the determination of the source of the tablets has become an absolute necessity . In this thesis, the production mechanisms of the most widely used active substances together with the intermediates and by-products were presented. The intermediates, by-products and active substances play an important role in the investigation of the source of the illegal tablets. The procedure of tabletting, production method, additives, adulterants, intermediates and by-products and metal impurities in the contents of the active substances of the synthetic tablets are used to determine the sources of the tablets in this research. In order to establish the above mentioned factors the amount of adulterents was evaluated by the extraction and directly taking the FT-IR specta and the extraction . Moreover, GC-MS has been used by the extraction of the tablets at various pH values for the determination of by products and the synthetic mechanism of the finished products . Furthermore, GC was employed for the quantitative analysis of the additives and active substances in the tablets. The ICP-OES system has been used to determine the metallic impurities in the tablets digested in microwave by the nitric acid. The appearence of boron in the analysis of some tablets shows that cold method and NaBH4 has been employed . In addition, XRF analysis of the powder samples was carried out to determine the Pt residue resulting from the wide use of Pt as a catalyst in the synthesis. The fact that boron has never been found in the tablets which contain Pt supports this preposal. The physical and chemical data obtained can be used for the determination of the source of the seized tablets. Key Words : Ecstasy, MDMA, Drug, Amphetamine.