A case of abuse in which children were forced to take tablets containing scopolamine: segmental analysis of hair for scopolamine by ultra performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Our laboratory received hair samples of three children after alleged exposure to Feminax tablets, which contain scopolamine as an ingredient; it was regarded as an offense by the police because a woman had repeatedly beaten her children and forced each of them to take four to ten Feminax tablets per day. Neither blood nor urine samples of the children had been obtained at the time of the alleged offense. Thus, hair strands were obtained from the children as specimens in acquiring evidence of the offense. We conducted segmental hair analysis of scopolamine using ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC)-tandem mass spectrometry (MS-MS), which is highly sensitive and specific, and enabled the measurements of scopolamine at subpicogram-permilligram levels present in the hair segments. By our UPLC-MS-MS analysis, it was found that the concentrations in the hair segments ranged from 0.3 to 1.1 pg/mg and that exposure to scopolamine had continued for at least several months prior to the hair sampling for all children. Because of our scientific evidence, the mother pleaded guilty to the offense against her children despite her denial at the outset of the investigation.