ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the chemical and pharmacological characteristics of cathinone derivatives, and the most applied analytical techniques that have proved most efficient in the toxicological analysis of material evidence, and of biological samples containing substances belonging to the group. In many countries, a growing number of the cathinone derivatives become legally banned and considered as psychotropic substances equivalent to such hard drugs as amphetamine. Cathinone is one of the biologically active alkaloids derived from the shrub Catha edulis. With synthetic cathinones, the analytical techniques of first choice are gas chromatography and liquid chromatography coupled with different spectroscopic techniques. The mechanism of action of synthetic cathinones consists in the inhibition of monoamine transporters as dopamine transporter, noradrenaline transporter, and serotonin transporter. Because of a wide possibility to introduce various different modifications to cathinone structures, novel compounds continuously appear on the designer drugs market. Identification and physicochemical characterization thereof are a real challenge for chemical analysts.
