Books
Forensics guide to drug testing chemical methods for drug testing. In addition, it points out cross-reactivity difficulties, cites manufacturing warnings, and calls attention to matrix problems with commercially available immunochemical testing kits. Moreover, numerous tables contain information on column packings for GC, derivatizing reagents, and solvents for HPLC methods of drug testing. The appendices list many drug metabolites, show Handbook of Drug Analysis: drug chemical structures, and present inApplications in Forensic and formation on drug functional groups that Clinical Laboratories should be useful to bench analysts. The Ray H. Liu and Daniel E. Gadzala book was carefully prepared, and the proofAmerican Chemical Society reading seems well done. The structural 1155 16th St.. NW formula for caffeine on page 187 is an obviWashington, DC 20036 ous error; but in general, the book shows 1997, 367 pp., $129.95 careful attention to details in its preparaThis handbook is directed at bench analysts tion. However, several of the figures used in the MS section the NMR chapter, and in forensic laboratories who are involved in the chromatography section appear to be drug analysis. Clinical and pharmaceutical dot-matrix printer quality and the reproresearch laboratories usually use analytical methods that are different from forensic lab- duction is poor oratories; therefore this book will not be of This handbook has an enormous wide interest to workers in those laboratoamount of practical information for bench ries, contrary to what the title suggests. technicians and for undergraduate students interested in forensic science. This Handbooks are difficult to write and handbook cites more than 1400 references. troublesome to review. For a subject as Many chemists would not be very familiar broad as drug analysis in forensic science, with the journals or sources of many of the writing a handbook that is concise and decited publications because the majority are tailed is a nearly impossible task. Historifrom the field of forensic science. Many cally, crime and forensic laboratories have references are from technical bulletins of received their directions from the law and medical professions and, to a lesser extent, federal government agencies and news from analytical chemistry. The two authors magazines that report illicit drug use of this handbook, Liu and Gadzala, likewise Hence, the bibliography uses a wide ran$?e of publications in manyfields,many of had their original formal education in law which suffer from not having had rigorous and medicine, respectively. Their education scientific peer review before publication. in chemistry came later in their careers. Positive features of this handbook inThis handbook does not teach the clude a large amount of information on reader about the details of the analytical drug testing, sampling, and sample prepaprocedures but reports the references for ration. The book has several up-to-date cita- obtaining a more fundamental understandtions, covering a broad range of literature ing of the chemistry or the instrumental over the past 25 years, and includes a distechnique under discussion. For clinical cussion of the inaccuracies of immunochemists, this handbook lacks focus to608 A
Analytical Chemistry News & Features, September 1, 1998
ward rapid emergency-type analyses. For analytical chemists, this handbook is not focused on the chemistry or the fundamental principles of instrumental analyses. This book is a useful addition to the literature for forensic chemists because it will alert them to the need for more solid high-quality analytical chemistry in forensic science laboratories. In summary, the quality of the analytical chemistry is not equivalent to that expected in classical academic chemistry department literature, but the handbook will be useful to analysts in forensic science laboratories. Reviewed by Merle Evensons University of Wisconsin-Madison
Three decades of separations
HPLC and CE: Principles and Practice Andrea Weston and Phyllis R. Brown Academic Press 525 B St., Suite 1900 San Diego, CA 92101-4495 1997, 280 pp., $69.95
The first edition of this work, entitled High Pressure eiquid Chromatography, appeared in 1970. Since that time, HPLC has grown at a phenomenal rate and is now used routinely throughout the world. The development of CE is another area that has significantly contributed to the field of separa-
