The Daily Bulletin

Please join us for the Professional Science Master's seminar "Byproducts of Psychoactive Crude Desomorphine (Krokodil) behind Human Disease and Toxicity," presented by Kallee Frego, master of science degree candidate in forensic chemistry, on Thursday, February 22, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in Science and Mathematics Complex 169.

Abstract
“Krokodil” is the street name for a homemade drug that has been used as a cheap substitute for heroin. Desomorphine, a morphine derivative, is the main component in Krokodil. The use of Krokodil spread to continents such as Europe and Asia, with a few reported cases in North America. Krokodil was first made in Siberia in 2002, though desomorphine, which has been around since 1932, was first synthesized in the United States.

Codeine is the starting opioid in the synthesis of Krokodil, and desomorphine is the main opioid. Krokodil can easily be made with some products typically found around the house. Because of the cheap raw materials used, Krokodil is composed of a complex mixture of substances. These impurities are the causes of thrombophlebitis, ulcerations, gangrene, and necrosis, which eventually lead to limb amputation or death. To identify these byproducts, the chemical profiling of Krokodil was done by reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography coupled to a photodiode array detector (RP-HPLC-DAD) and by liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-IT-Orbitrap-MS). The results from these techniques propose that although desomorphine is said to be the main component of Krokodil, other morphine derivatives are responsible for the symptoms.