Chromatography

The benzodiazepine derivatives are efficacious for insomnia and are commonly used in most types of sleeping pills. It is well known by law enforcement agencies that these pills are often used in criminal activities or to assist suicides. In hospitals or police labs the identification of these compounds in blood or urine samples using GCMS is vitally important to identify a crime. Their concentration levels in blood samples are very low. In these cases the mass spectrum is less reliable as a tool for the identification of these compounds. An identification system, using the retention time and the mass number (mass chromatogram) is more reliable. A database including an MS library and software has been developed by Shimadzu.