Determination of zolpidem with GC / MS and its importance in forensics

In 1993, the World Health Organization (WHO) meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland; It was found appropriate to use it as a collective for complaints with chronic sleep insufficiency. Generally, insomnia is grouped into three groups: the difficulties of falling asleep, often waking up from sleep, waking up early in the morning and not being able to fall asleep again. Zolpidem is a substance used in the treatment of insomnia. Zolpidem, Zopiclone and zaleplone are grouped under the name Z-drugs. These agents are imidazopyridine derivatives which are not benzodiazepine. However, although benzodiazepines have similarity to their mechanism of action, they are frequently preferred because they do not have the next day side effects due to their chemical structure. Zolpidemin, which is widely used in the treatment of insomnia due to the above mentioned properties; because of its short half-life, the effect of this substance in a short period of time, the fact that it does not make a difference in the taste and color of the beverage when mixed with beverages (except in high doses) makes this substance inevitable. Such as; sexual assault, extortion, life-like reasons the tool to be committed by the second person; It has also been reported involving in deaths due to overdose as a result of misuse or suicide cases. For all these reasons, zolpidem has an important role in forensic sciences. In this study, a quick and inexpensive method with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is partially validated. The aim of the method is to contribute to the routine analyses of Forensic Toxicology Laboratories in the cases of acute poisoning, postmortem specimens or determination of the substance from food/beverages. In this study; the linear range of zolpidem was 10-200 μg /mL, the correlation coefficient was R2 = 0.9972. As a result of studies for selectivity, no interference was observed. The LOD and LOQ values were 0.28 μg / mL and 0.35 μg /mL, respectively. The recovery percentage was %93.5 ± 9.73 at the concentration of 15 μg /mL, %93.40 ± 8.32 at the concentration of 20 μg /mL and %94.41 ± 9.84 at the concentration of 50 μg /mL. For the reproducibility, 3 different recovery concentrations were studied. The mean of 6 samples at a concentration of 15 μg/mL was 14.03 ± 1.46 μg/mL, the relative standard deviation rate was 10.41, the mean of 6 samples at a concentration of 20 μg/mL was 18.68 ± 1.66 μg/mL, and the relative standard deviation rate was 8.91, at the concentration of 50 μg/mL. The mean age of the sample was 47.21 ± 4.92 μg/mL and the relative standard deviation rate was 10.42. For the stability study, the rate of change in the samples analyzed at 7 days intervals was found to be 0.017%. A fast, inexpensive, validated method has been developed for the determination of zolpidem active substance with GC-MS system in forensic sciences. The method is expected to be used in routine forensic and clinical analyzes and for the determination of zolpidem from food/beverage.