Comparison of liquid-liquid extraction-thin layer chromatography with solid-phase extraction-high-performance thin layer chromatography in detection of urinary morphine

Liquid-liquid extraction-thin layer chromatography (LLE-TLC) has been a common and routine combined method for detection of drugs in biological materials. Solid-phase extraction (SPE) is gradually replacing the traditional LLE method. High performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) has several advantages over TLC. The present work studied the higher efficiency of a new SPE-HPTLC method over that of a routine LLE-TLC method, in extraction and detection of urinary morphine. Fifty-eight urine samples, primarily identified as morphine-positive samples by a strip test, were re-screened by LLE-TLC and SPE-HPTLC. The results of LLE-TLC and SPE-HPTLC were then compared with each other. The results showed that the SPE-HPTLC detected 74% of total samples as morphine-positive samples whereas the LLE-TLC detected 48% of the same samples. We further discussed the effect of codeine abuse on TLC analysis of urinary morphine. Regarding the importance of morphine detection in urine, the present combined SPE-HPTLC method is suggested as a replacement method for detection of urinary morphine by many reference laboratories.