Determination of Mescaline in Hallucinogenic Cactaceae by Ion-Interaction HPLC.

Abstract

Abstract An ion-interaction HPLC method is developed for the determination of mescaline in some Cactaceae species, namely Gymnocactus beguinii, Echinocactus polycephalus, Coriphanta radians, Coriphanta scolymoides, Coriphanta palmeri, Lophophora williamsii and Trichocereus pachanoi. Mescaline is characterized by hallucinogenic properties and can be prescribed as a psychodrug. The method makes use of a C18-reversed-phase as the stationary phase and of a 5.0 mM aqueous solution of octylamine o-phosphate as the mobile phase, with spectrophotometric detection at 230 nm. The method is sensitive (detection limit of 35 μg/L) and matrix interference-free. The pretreatment of the sample is performed by grinding the fresh cactus and extracting the jelly pulp obtained either with a methanolic-ammonial solution or an aqueous solution buffered at pH 4.0 (phosphate buffer). The average amounts of mescaline found in Lophophora williamsii and in Trichocereus pachanoi were respectively 2.55 mg and 3.10 mg/g of fresh cactus.