Impurities adulterants and diluents of illicit herion in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Most often heroin is adulterated or diluted several times before it reaches the user. The contents of impurities, adulterants and diluents in twenty samples of illicit heroin were determined by a combination of Thin Layer Chromatography and reverse phase High Performance Liquid Chromatography. The origin of the samples were characterized by calculating the content of opium alkaloids in relation to the heroin content. The results were used as a “Chemical Fingerprint” of the samples.