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An Analysis of "Red Rock Opium" Using Mass Spectrometry
by Erowid

I finally finished the GCMS results of the red-rock sample that was submitted by a user last month. I dissolved the sample in a 90/10 solution of toluene/butanol, which is pretty good for solublizing plant extracts and super-good for use in the GCMS. The overall spectrum is named "A" and it shows a tight clutch of fairly volatile components in the 6 to 8 minute time slot, and then two late things at about 12 minutes.

Spectrum "B" is an electronic blowup of the main group from figure "A". "B" shows the peaks between 5 minutes and 10 minutes. The four major peaks (at 6.144, 6,237, 6.476 and 6.902 minutes) are in spectra "C" and "D" and they all show some parent peak(?) at about 204 mass. Th all have distinct aliphatic aliphatic hydrocarbon cracking patterns. None of them match any terpene spectra that I have in my atlas and I have no idea as to what they might be. But they might well be responsible for the smell of the burning resin, when smoked, as this is the mass range for essential oils. I wasn't able to find any information on the 'Dracorhodin' compound mentioned by the DEA.

The two late peaks at about 12 minutes (this is where I would expect the Opium alkaloids to show up) have been blown up in "E" and their Mass Spectra are shown in "F." Maybe a 256 and a 270 parent mass peak are there. Again I draw a blank.

In "G," I searched for the parent peaks with Single Ion Monitoring (an extremely sensitive technique) for the major alkaloids of Opium that lay within the mass range I was set-up to look at. This is to detect Morphine (285), Codeine (299) Thebaine (311) and Papaverine (339). There was a trivial deflection at 299, and nothing at the other masses. The only conclusion I can come to is that there is no trace of Opium in Red Rock Opium.

That is what it is not. Sorry to be unable to say what it is!