Grant Abstract: Natural Product-Drug Interaction Research: The Roadmap to Best Practices

Grant Number: 3U54AT008909-04S2
PI Name: Paine
Project Title: Natural Product-Drug Interaction Research: The Roadmap to Best Practices

Abstract: The herbal drug, kratom [Mitragyna speciose (Korth.) Havil. (Rubiaceae)] is finding growing use in the United States. This is somewhat controversial, as some people believe it can be used to ameliorate pain, while others believe that it is addictive (similar to opioids). The goal of this study is to develop a single lab validated method to analyze the major alkaloids in kratom extract. There are about five other validated methods reported in the literature. However, our studies will be different from those, as we will use a suite of approximately 20 reference standards (other methods use 1 or 2 standards) and will examine these using UPLC-HRMS-MS. In particular, the use of UPLC (as opposed to HPLC) will be both faster and consume less solvent. In addition, the use of HRMS coupled with tandem MS (i.e. MS/MS) will provide much better power with respect to differentiating between these closely related alkaloids. In sum total, our methodology will provide the scientific community with a methodology that can be used to distinguish kratom extracts.

Back to Grants Page