UC Davis

Cyanide (CN- ion) is a highly toxic and potentially lethal poison, which can be intentionally consumed, used as a poison, or accidentally inhaled as smoke during fires. When determining the cause of death for a person or animal who is suspected to have been exposed to cyanide, it is beneficial to have a sensitive and robust method for its detection and quantitation in different biological matrices. The detection of thiocyanate (SCN- ion), a cyanide metabolite, could be useful as a biomarker for cyanide exposure, especially since cyanide degrades quickly. A simple and sensitive method for the detection and quantitation of cyanide at the parts per billion (ppb) level by HPLC-MS/MS was successfully developed in multiple matrices. This method digested samples with concentrated sulfuric acid in a microdiffusion setup, freeing the hydrogen cyanide and derivatizing it into a 1-cyano[f]benzoisoindole (CBI) derivative. This microdiffusion method was validated in water, equine whole blood, and ground chicken meat, the LODs for which were 14 ppb, 37 ppb, and 147 ppb, respectively. The LOQs for water, equine whole blood, and ground chicken meat were 42ppb, 111ppb, and 441ppb, respectively. This research unsuccessfully attempted to develop a method that detected and quantitated cyanide and thiocyanate in tissue by high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS).