Salvia divinorum is a hallucinogenic herb that is internationally regulated. In this study, salvinorin A was extracted from S. divinorum using a 5-minute extraction with dichloromethane. This rapid and simple procedure provided an extraction efficiency of 97.6% and an interday precision of 9.6%. Five Salvia species were extracted and analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). By visual inspection of chromatograms, S. divinorum was differentiated from the other species based on the presence of salvinorin A. Objective differentiation was also demonstrated using the multivariate statistical procedure of principal component analysis (PCA). Replicates of each species were closely positioned on the PCA scores plot, with clear distinction of S. divinorum from the other Salvia species. Four plant materials were then spiked with an extract of S. divinorum to simulate an adulterated sample that might be submitted to a forensic laboratory. The unadulterated and adulterated materials were extracted and analyzed by GC-MS. Again, by visual inspection of the chromatograms, the adulterated materials were associated to S. divinorum based on the presence of salvinorin A. Objective association was also demonstrated using PCA, where the adulterated plant materials were closely positioned to S. divinorum on the scores plot, but distinct from the native plant materials. The knowledge gained from this work will be directly useful to forensic analysts in countries and states where S. divinorum or salvinorin A are currently regulated. In addition, the multivariate statistical procedures used for objective association and discrimination in this proof-of-concept study may be more broadly applicable to other controlled substances and to other analytical techniques.
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