Nothing to sniff at
US scientists have come up with a way to uncover the origin of illicit cocaine (shown here) using the isotopic fingerprint of the carbon and nitrogen atoms in the cocaine molecules. "Cocaine is the most widely used narcotic drug," says James Ehleringerof the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, although identifying it is easy, finding its geographic origin is a forensics nightmare.
Ehleringer and his colleagues have found that cocaine molecules have a characteristic ratio of each of the isotopes of carbon and nitrogen depending on the isotopes absorbed by the coca plants during growth, which is determined by location. Chromatography was used to purify a sample to more than 98% then the mass spectra reveals the isotope ratios to a precision of more than 1 in 10,000. The team can use the technique to narrow down a cocaine source to a single growing valley in the vast Andes mountain range.
Click on picture to get 3D interactive view of the molecule
(Chime plugins from MDL is needed).
Click here to get cocaine molecule in ChemSketch format.
