A brief review: HPLC methods to directly detect drug glucuronides in biological matrices (Part I) Review Article

Detection of a drug and its glucuronide metabolite(s) is of great importance in interpretive forensic and clinical toxicology. Until recently, glucuronides were determined by cleavage of the glucuronide with an enzyme (e.g., β-glucuronidase) to yield the parent compound, which was subsequently detected, or via derivatization to a more volatile or detectable analogue. Direct detection of the glucuronide conjugates overcomes the critical limitations of approaches that involve enzymatic cleavage procedures and/or derivatization. This review will focus on direct methods to determine glucuronides of various potentially abused drugs in human biological matrices. More specifically, this review will be restricted to methods that involve liquid chromatography (LC) coupled with various detectors. Papers are presented in chronological order for each compound class to emphasize the evolution of methodology and continued importance of the application.