Modified QuEChERS for antiepileptic drugs detection in forensic toxicology

This study aims to concurrently assess the blood concentrations of antiepileptic drugs including phenobarbital, carbamazepine, primidone, phenytoin in post-mortem samples through the application modified QuEChERS extraction. The serum samples were extracted and then purified using magnesium sulfate, PSA, and C18 sorbents and subsequently analyzed using HPLC/UV. One influencing parameter on the extraction process was the pH of sample. Extraction recoveries were in the range of 42-97 % for all analytes. The findings reveal that the QuEChERS method offers a higher extraction efficiency, yielding cleaner samples with greater purity and preferred choice for drug analysis in forensic toxicology. The results showed that the proposed technique has a good analytical efficiency and the accuracy of work is in the average range of 70-85 %. The equation of linear calibration curve was obtained with regression coefficient > 0.99. Detection limits were in the range of 0.21-0.38 ng/mL.•This method is inexpensive and fast for determination of antiepileptic drugs in serum•This method has high thought of sample determination.•This method is green chemistry method.