TY - JOUR A1 - Abdelshafi, Nahla A. A1 - Panne, Ulrich A1 - Schneider, Rudolf T1 - Screening for cocaine on Euro banknotes by a highly sensitive enzyme immunoassay T2 - Talanta N2 - This study focused on quantitative detection of cocaine on Euro banknotes in Germany. A sensitive direct competitive immunoassay was developed and optimized with a limit of detection (LOD) of 5.6 ng/L. Exhaustive cocaine extraction by solvent was tested using different methanol concentrations and buffered solutions. Crossreactivity studies were performed to determine the degree of interference of cocaine metabolites with the immunoassay. Sixty-five Euro banknotes obtained from different districts in Berlin were evaluated. A 100% contamination frequency with cocaine was detected. A comparison between the amount of cocaine extracted by cotton swabbing of one square centimeter of the banknote showed a good correlation for lower contamination levels. This assay showed high sensitivity of detecting pg of cocaine per 1 cm2 of one banknote by swabbing 1 cm2: 0, 14, and 21 pg/cm2. Moreover, three notes of different denominations revealed high cocaine concentration; 1.1 mg/note, and twice 55 μg/note. PB - Elsevier KW - Cocaine KW - Euro banknotes KW - Drugs on bills KW - Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay KW - ELISA PY - 2017 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bam/frontdoor/index/index/docId/39150 AN - OPUS4-39150 SN - 0039-9140 SN - 1873-3573 VL - 165 SP - 619 EP - 624 AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany