Detection of major psychoactive compounds (safrole, myristicin, and elemicin) of nutmeg in human serum via GC–MS/MS using MonoSpin® extraction: Application in a nutmeg poisoning case

• Published in: Journal of pharmaceutical and biomedical analysis 2023-09, Vol.234, p.115565-115565, Article 115565
• Main Authors: Usui, Kiyotaka, Kubota, Eito, Kobayashi, Haruka, Fujita, Yuji, Hatanaka, Kengo, Kamijo, Yoshito, Funayama, Masato, Mimasaka, Sohtaro
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Elemicin; MonoSpin; Myristicin; Nutmeg; Nutmeg poisoning; Safrole
• ISSN: 0731-7085; 1873-264X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpba.2023.115565

Nutmeg is an inexpensive, readily available spice used in a variety of recipes. However, the use of nutmeg powder as a recreational drug for its hallucinogenic effects is resulting in an increase in overdose rates. We encountered a male patient being hospitalized after ingesting 75 g of commercially available nutmeg powder with the intent of committing suicide. There are no available reports documenting the toxic or comatose-fatal blood concentrations or time-course of drug action in cases of nutmeg poisoning. Therefore, to improve patient management, we endeavored to determine the blood serum levels and time-course of the major psychoactive compounds (safrole, myristicin, and elemicin) present in nutmeg. We designed a simple and reliable method using the MonoSpin® extraction kit and gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry to detect the presence of these psychoactive compounds in human serum. The method had detection and quantitation limits of 0.14–0.16 and 0.5 ng/mL (lowest calibration points), respectively. The calibration curves displayed excellent linearity (0.996–0.997) for all three compounds at 0.5–300 ng/mL blood concentrations. The intra- and inter-day precision values for quality assurance were in the ranges of 2.4–11 % and 2.5–11 %, respectively; bias ranged from − 2.6 % to 2.1 %. Blood serum levels of safrole, myristicin, and elemicin were measured at admission (approximately 8 h post-ingestion) and approximately 94 h after a post-admission fluid therapy to evaluate their biological half-lives. We developed this method to obtain information on the psychoactive constituents of nutmeg and, thereby, determine the toxicokinetic parameters of nutmeg in a case of nutmeg poisoning. •Nutmeg, a common spice, is also used as a recreational psychoactive drug.•Our method detects safrole, myristicin, and elemicin from nutmeg in human serum.•The serum is prepared using MonoSpin® C18 FF cartridges and subjected to GC–MS/MS.•We validated the method and applied it in a nutmeg-poisoning case.•We determined the toxicokinetic parameters of nutmeg in a case of nutmeg poisoning.