Recent research in several laboratories has indicated that ibogaine may be of value in the treatment of addictions to a number of drugs of abuse. Ibogaine, itself, is a hallucinogen. Thus, widespread use of ibogaine pharmacologically will inevitably lead to abuse of this substance. Currently, there is no validated method for the determination of ibogaine in body fluids. We propose, therefore, to evaluate extraction and analytical techniques that might be appropriate for inclusion in a method for ibogaine analysis. Extraction techniques will include liquid/liquid extraction and solid-phase extraction tubes. Chromatographic techniques will be evaluated both for cleanup and analysis. Such techniques will include HPLC, SFE, GC, TLC (including HPPLC), and combinations of these techniques with mass spectrometry. We shall compare the performance and cost of high- and low- resolution mass spectrometry, as well as MS/MS. The method that we plan to refine and validate during Phase II will be published in a peer-reviewed journal, and we trust that it will become standard in the drug-testing industry. It is likely that the method will require a greater degree of skill (and, perhaps, more sophisticated equipment) that is currently available in drug-screening laboratories. Since we already have the appropriate personnel and equipment, we anticipate that we shall be able to profit by conducting ibogaine testing as subcontractors for larger laboratories. We currently conduct dioxin analyses in the same manner, and view ibogaine testing as a similar niche.
