Analysis of Ketamine, a Rave Drug in Pakistan, using Gas Chromatography Coupled with Mass Spectrometer and Flame Ionization Detector: A Case Study

Abstract

Ketamine is an arylcycloalkylamine, classified as cyclidine and
chemically related to phencyclidine (PCP). Ketamine can be identified
using modified Scott’s Test and Alkaline Gold Bromide test.
This case study involved the analysis of a Ketamine sample.
The sample was analyzed qualitatively by chemical spot tests,
FT-IR and GC-MS without derivatization. Furthermore, a developed
and validated method was used for the quantitative analysis
of Ketamine using Gas Chromatography with a Flame Ionization
Detector (FID).
The certified reference standard of Ketamine in the range of 10-
100μg/mL was used for developing linear correlation with regression
coefficient (R2 = 0.9997) for the method. The method produced
percentage of sample as 90.27%.
The above mentioned techniques and methods provide comparable
qualitative and quantitative analytical results helping law
enforcement agencies and the forensic community in screening and
quantification of ketamine using GCMS coupled with FID.