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Tony Moffat, DSc, FRPharmS, is senior
editor of ‘Clarke’s analysis of drugs and poisons’ and
the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s chief scientist
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The latest edition of the world-renowned standard reference text for
forensic toxicologists — ‘Clarke’s analysis of drugs
and poisons’ — has just been published. The dog-eared, stained
copies on laboratory benches are a testament to its usefulness. It has
gained its reputation by being a reliable source of evaluated and accurate
information. The information in Clarke has been designed to provide methods
and data to enable analysts to detect, identify, quantify and profile
drugs and poisons in a wide variety of situations.
The history of Clarke, as the book is now affectionately known, dates
from the Third International Meeting on Forensic Immunology, Medicine,
Pathology and Toxicology held in London in 1963. At that meeting, Dr
Alan Curry convened a group to discuss how information for the identification
of drugs and poisons could be exchanged. These needs arose from a variety
of situations such as suspected poisonings, doped racehorses and white
powders suspected of being drugs of abuse. Rapid screening methods were
needed as well as supporting information from the application of the
new chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques. Dr Alan Curry and Dr
Irving Sunshine subsequently made proposals for the contents of a compendium
of analytical data for drugs and poisons that would meet the perceived
needs. It was recognised at that time that it would take the efforts
of many toxicological laboratories to provide such information.
In answer to the above, George Clarke convinced the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society to publish such a compendium of methods and data. He was well
qualified to do this, as he was an acclaimed toxicologist at the Royal
Veterinary College, becoming England’s first professor of chemical
toxicology in 1968. Throughout his career he was a leader in many professional
bodies having been President of the International Association of Forensic
Toxicologists (TIAFT) (1963), Forensic Science Society (1965) and British
Academy of Forensic Sciences (1968).
The first edition, published in 1969, was titled ‘Isolation and
identification of drugs’. It contained 10 chapters giving detailed
methodology to perform analyses in a variety of situations such as fast
screening methods for use in hospital biochemistry laboratories as well
as robust and accurate methods for use in forensic science laboratories
where the results could be cross-examined in a court of law. There were
also about 900 monographs for drugs and poisons giving analytical data
for identification as well as references for quantitative methods.
The increasing workload of toxicology laboratories led to the expansion
of the first edition by the publication of a supplemental volume six
years later in 1975. The chapter on screening tests for common drugs
was completely rewritten to reflect the advances in available instrumentation
and changing drug use and abuse patterns. Other chapters were brought
up to date and new chapters on mass spectrometry and radioimmunoassay
introduced. An additional 250 monographs were added to include veterinary
drugs and modern drugs of abuse.
By the beginning of the 1980s, Clarke had won pride of place in forensic
toxicologists’ bookshelves and had become an indispensable part
of their lives. Poisoning cases, the abuse of drugs and solvents and
drug abuse in sport had all increased enormously. A new edition was therefore
planned in 1981 under my senior editorship assisted by three senior toxicologists:
John Jackson (forensic toxicology), Michael Moss (doping in sport) and
Brian Widdop (hospital toxicology) since George Clarke had died in 1978.
To acknowledge George’s vision for the book and to recognise that
it was normally called Clarke by its users, it was renamed ‘Clarke’s
isolation and identification of drugs’. This was a much larger
volume with 18 chapters and over 1,300 drug monographs. It was aimed
to provide the means for detecting, identifying and quantifying most
drugs and other toxic substances with a new function — to assist
in interpreting the results. Thus a new section on disposition in the
body was added to the drug monographs. Pictures of ultraviolet and infrared
spectra were added for the first time, but we did still not have the
space to include pictures of mass spectra. These had to be published
as a separate book. It was also planned for use not only in hospital
and toxicology laboratories, but expanded in scope to be used in numerous
others such as quality control laboratories, environmental laboratories,
and clinical laboratories engaged in therapeutic drug monitoring or research
into pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism.
The third edition, just published, is titled ‘Clarke’s analysis
of drugs and poisons’ to reflect the increased occurrence of pesticides,
other poisons, drugs misused in sport and drugs of abuse. As before,
a team of editors, including myself, David Osselton (forensic toxicology)
and Brian Widdop (hospital toxicology) coupled with the editorial department
of the Pharmaceutical Press undertook the work to complete the project.
It has been divided into two volumes for ease of use — especially
for teaching purposes. Volume 1 contains the 31 chapters that describe
the philosophy and practice in terms of methodology and analytical techniques.
Additional areas covered include drugs of abuse, alcohol and drugs in
driving, workplace drug-testing, postmortem toxicology, drugs in saliva
and hair analysis. New techniques are also included, for example, Raman
and near-infrared spectroscopy and capillary electrophoresis.
Volume 2 contains over 1,730 monographs (an additional 400 substances)
with full mass spectra being included for the first time.
A major change is the provision of the information as a CD-ROM so that
searches can be made rapidly.
Future improvements are planned including more advanced CD-ROM versions
that will enable combined searches on the analytical data from the same
or different techniques. More frequent updates can also be made using
electronic means, thus ensuring the continued success of Clarke in the
future.
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