Simple and rapid analysis of acetaminophen in human autopsy samples by vortex‐assisted dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction‐thin layer chromatography‐image analysis.

In the present work, we describe a simple, rapid, cost‐effective, environmentally friendly and high‐sample‐throughput analytical method based on coupling vortex‐assisted dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction with thin layer chromatography analysis for quantitative determination of acetaminophen in whole human blood and tissues of stomach and liver. Followed by dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction, 20 μL of sedimented phase (chloroform) was spotted on a thin layer chromatography plate and developed with mobile phase of chloroform: acetone (8:2, v/v). The developed plate was photographed under ultraviolet chamber at 254 nm and the image was processed for quantification of spots using freely available ImageJ software. Under the optimized conditions, the limit of detection and limit of quantification were found to be in the range of 7.74–8.33 and 23.4–25.2 μg/spot, respectively. The method was found to be linear in the range of 30–300 μg/spot with a coefficient of determination of 0.996 and 0.998 in blood and tissue, respectively. The developed method has been successfully applied for the determination of acetaminophen in autopsy samples from a case of acetaminophen overdose. The method does not require any sophisticated high‐end instrumentation and can be routinely applied for determination of acetaminophen in complex biological samples in resource‐limited laboratories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]