The presence of morphine in ganglionic tissues of Modiolus deminissus:: a highly sensitive method of quantitation for morphine and its derivatives

Morphine and morphine-6-glucuronide, a morphine metabolite, have been identified and quantified in Modiolus deminissus pedal ganglia at a level of 2.41 and 0.95 ng/ganglia, respectively. These opiate alkaloids are normally found at low concentrations in invertebrate and vertebrate tissues, including neural. Given this problem, we also describe a new opiate extraction protocol as well as a high-performance liquid chromatography purification procedure that can separate and quantify morphine and its derivatives at sub-nanogram concentrations. Furthermore, both morphine and morphine-6-glucuronide were identified in this mollusk's pedal ganglia by mass spectrometry analysis. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.