Determination of amphetamine by HPLC after acetylation

An analytical procedure has been developed for the HPLC determination of amphetamine by off-line pre-column derivatization. The proposed procedure consists of sample preparation by acetylation of amphetamine with acetic anhydride and a subsequent reversed-phase HPLC separation on an octadecyl silica stationary phase with salt-free mobile phase (tetrahydrofuran, acetonitrile, 0.1% triethylamine in water, 15:15:70 v/v) applying UV-detection. The applicability of the elaborated procedure is demonstrated with results obtained by analysis of real samples seized in the Hungarian black market.