Rapid Nondestructive Analysis of Opioid Peptide Purity

This project is to develop an analytical instrument and associated protocols for the rapid,nondestructive measurement of molecular and optical purity of the opioid peptides. The instrument willutilize Raman spectroscopy for determination of molecular purity and Raman optical activity (ROA) fordetermination of enantiomeric purity. ROA provides structure-specific optical purity of singlecomponents in the presence of chiral or achiral impurities and is a nondestructive technique. Raman andROA spectroscopy can uniquely determine the purity of the major component as well as uniquely identifyand quantify the impurities that may be present. Phase I objective is to demonstrate the analyticalfeasibility of Raman and ROA spectroscopy for determination of optical and molecular purity of an opioidpeptide. The Phase II objective will be to develop a complete spectral library for all the opioid peptidescurrently stocked by NIDA and to provide NIDA with a prototype ROA instrument.