Myristicin (5-allyl-1-methoxy-2,3-methylenodioxybenzene) is the main component of nutmeg (Myristica fragrans Houtt.) essential oil. The increasing use of myristicin as a cheap hallucinogenic intoxicant, frequently causing fatal cases of myristicin poisoning, requires new methods for determination of this compound in blood. This report describes the rapid, simple, and useful procedure for myristicin analysis in human serum, involving myristicin-protein complex degradation before chromatographic analysis. The developed method is characterized by a high recovery (above 99 %), a low detection limit (6.0 ng/g) and good repeatability (average RDS of 2.01 %).
Keywords: Gas chromatography; Human serum; Myristicin; SPE.