A SIMPLE ANALYSIS OF 5 THINNER COMPONENTS IN HUMAN-BODY FLUIDS BY HEADSPACE SOLID-PHASE MICROEXTRACTION (SPME)

A simple method for the extraction of 5 thinner components from human whole blood and urine, using the headspace solid-phase microextraction (SPME) method is presented. After heating a vial containing the samples with 5 compounds (toluene, benzene, n-butyl acetate, n-butanol and n-isoamyl acetate) at 80 degrees C, a polydimethylsiloxane-coated SPME fiber was exposed to the headspace of the vial to allow adsorption of the compounds. The fiber needle was then injected into a capillary gas chromatography (GC) port. The headspace SPME-GC gave intense peaks for each compound and a low level of background noise was seen only for whole blood. Recovery rates of the 5 compounds by use of the headspace SPME-GC were 50-70%. Reproducibility for headspace SPME-GC data were excellent for both body fluids. The calibration curves showed linearity in the range 2-100 ng/0.5 ml whole blood or urine. The detection limits of each compound were 1.1-2.4 ng/0.5 ml sample. The present results on the analysis of 5 thinner components by headspace SPME-GC suggest its applicability to a number of other volatile compounds in forensic toxicology.