This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Assault facilitated by drugs such as scopolamine (popularly known as Devil's Breath) is a serious public health and forensic concern. This drug is especially hazardous due to its strong amnesic, sedative and hallucinogenic effects, combined with its lack of color, odor and taste, which prevents it from being detected when ingested.
Despite its toxicological importance, there are still few methods available for the rapid onsite detection of scopolamine. The detection of these types of drugs relies on instrumental analytical techniques. While these provide high sensitivity and specificity, they require laboratory conditions and extensive sample preparation, making them impractical for rapid, onsite analysis.
To address the lack of portable, low-cost analytical tools for detecting scopolamine in a variety of matrices without the need for a laboratory, the Microfluidics Cluster EHU research group, led by Ikerbasque research professor Lourdes Basabe-Desmonts, has developed a self-powered, microfluidic paper-based device for the rapid detection of scopolamine in pharmaceuticals, plant extracts and beverages. It is a discreet, portable and easy-to-use tool. The work is published in the journal Talanta.
It consists of a self-powered microfluidic device with a paper support on which a reaction produces a color change indicating a positive or negative result. "The device is immersed in the sample for a few seconds, and after around 10 minutes the result can be seen with the naked eye, without the need for any other type of detector," explains Isabel Poves, lead author of the study. She believes that "this device will help prevent drug-facilitated assault, because more important than detecting it after the fact is trying to prevent it from happening in the first place.
We need to be able to quickly detect whether a drink contains an adulterating substance." "Microfluidic technology opens the door to a type of analysis that was impossible before," explains Poves, a predoctoral researcher with the group. In the past, to find out whether something had been added to your drink, you would have had to take a sample to a specialized laboratory for analysis. This technology enables a preliminary analysis to be conducted onsite.
Microfluidic technology consists of miniaturizing or simplifying processes that are carried out on a larger scale in a laboratory, so that the sample does not need to be handled in any way. The paper helps bring us closer to the objective of developing a microfluidic platform capable of detecting multiple drugs through a single colorimetric reaction. In fact, the study forms part of a larger project led by the Microfluidics Cluster UPV/EHU group, which seeks to detect as many drugs as possible using a single device.
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