Ibogaine Analysis

Recent research in several laboratories has indicated that ibogaine may be of value in thetreatment of addictions to a number of drugs of abuse. Ibogaine, itself, is a hallucinogen. Thus,widespread use of ibogaine pharmacologically will inevitably lead to abuse of this substance. Currently,there is no validated method for the determination of ibogaine in body fluids. We will, therefore,evaluate extraction and analytical techniques that might be appropriate for inclusion in a method foribogaine analysis. Extraction techniques will include liquid/liquid extraction and solid-phase extractiontubes. Chromatographic techniques will be evaluated both for cleanup and analysis. Such techniqueswill include HPLC, SFE, GC, TLC (including HPPLC), and combinations of these techniques with massspectrometry. We shall compare the performance and cost of high- and low-resolution massspectrometry, as well as MS/MS. The method that we plan to refine and validate during Phase II willbe published in a peer-reviewed journal, and we trust that it will become standard in the drug-testingindustry. It is likely that the method will require a greater degree of skill (and, perhaps, moresophisticated equipment) that is currently available in drug-screening laboratories. Since we already havethe appropriate personnel and equipment, we anticipate that we shall be able to profit by conductingibogaine testing as subcontractors for larger laboratories. We currently conduct dioxin analyses in thesame manner, and view ibogaine testing as a similar niche.