Indian Journal of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology

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Spectrophotometry Semiquantitation Method Hippuric Acid in Urine for Demostration of Toluene Abuse


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1 Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Universiti Teknologi of Malaysia 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
     

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Toluene abuser as known as glue sniffer has been growth like drug abuser nowadays in Malaysia. Toluene can entered human body and metabolite in kidney to form benzoic acid which is then conjugated with glycine to form hippuric acid. The purpose of this research is to develop a fast and accurate screening method of toluene presence in urine sample of glue sniffer. However, urine is a complex mixture of thousand chemicals thus it is difficult to carry out qualitative analysis unless proper sample treatment and instrument with high sensitivity is applied. Urine samples were mixed with pyridine and benzenesulphonyl chloride with addition of distill water. The change color from yellow to red indicates the presence of hippuric acid in the urine samples. This technique was found successfully create a simple, fast and accurate screening method available. Quantitative analysis of toluene in urine samples was done using UV-Visible spectrometer at wavelength 417 nm and presented in this paper. The successfully of this research will be useful to help National Anti Drug Agency and Royal Police of Malaysia to overcome this problem.

Keywords

Glue, Hippuric Acid, Benzoic Acid, Color Test, Ultra Violet Visible
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  • Spectrophotometry Semiquantitation Method Hippuric Acid in Urine for Demostration of Toluene Abuse

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Authors

Abdul Rahim Yacob
Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Universiti Teknologi of Malaysia 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
Mohamad Raizul Zinalibdin
Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Universiti Teknologi of Malaysia 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia

Abstract


Toluene abuser as known as glue sniffer has been growth like drug abuser nowadays in Malaysia. Toluene can entered human body and metabolite in kidney to form benzoic acid which is then conjugated with glycine to form hippuric acid. The purpose of this research is to develop a fast and accurate screening method of toluene presence in urine sample of glue sniffer. However, urine is a complex mixture of thousand chemicals thus it is difficult to carry out qualitative analysis unless proper sample treatment and instrument with high sensitivity is applied. Urine samples were mixed with pyridine and benzenesulphonyl chloride with addition of distill water. The change color from yellow to red indicates the presence of hippuric acid in the urine samples. This technique was found successfully create a simple, fast and accurate screening method available. Quantitative analysis of toluene in urine samples was done using UV-Visible spectrometer at wavelength 417 nm and presented in this paper. The successfully of this research will be useful to help National Anti Drug Agency and Royal Police of Malaysia to overcome this problem.

Keywords


Glue, Hippuric Acid, Benzoic Acid, Color Test, Ultra Violet Visible

References