Determination of myristicin in commonly spices applying SPE/GC

The increasing use of myristicin (a component of nutmeg) as a cheap hallucinogenic intoxicant requires from the world of science the elaboration of new methods for determination of this compound in daily-use foodstuffs. The present study describes a fast, simple and sensitive method of myristicin analysis in nutmeg and spices containing it using gas chromatography combined with ultrasonic solvent extraction and solid phase extraction processes. The developed method is characterized by high recovery (almost 100%), a low detection limit 1.35 ng g−1 and good repeatability (average RDS value equal 2.39%). The presented analytical approach constitutes a substantial improvement on previously reported methods for myristicin analysis and seems to be the method of choice for determining the amount of the compound in spices containing nutmeg.