Whole blood is an increasingly important matrix for forensic toxicology screening and confirmation applications. Supported liquid extraction using ISOLUTE® SLE+ is well suited to handling this sometimes difficult matrix.

This application note describes the extraction of Δ9-THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), 11-hydroxy- Δ9-THC and 11-nor-9-carboxy-THC from whole blood matrix, prior to GC/MS analysis. An extremely simple sample pre-treatment and extraction method is employed to extract the parent THC and main metabolites from complex whole blood matrix, delivering high, reproducible analyte recoveries. The optimized SLE+ protocol demonstrated analyte recoveries ranging from 72-83%. RSD’s were below 10% for all analytes.