Case Report: Preliminary Gas Chromatography with Mass Spectrometry Determination of 3,5-dimethoxyphenol in Biological Specimens as Evidence of Taxus Poisoning

R. Froldi¹, P.F. Croci², L. Dell’Acqua², F. Farè², G. Tassoni¹, and V. Gambaro^2
1Università di Macerata, Institute of Legal Medicine, Via Don Minzoni 9, 62100 Macerata, Italy and ²Università degli Studi di Milano, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences “P. Pratesi”, Via Mangiagalli 25, 20133 Milano, Italy

Taxus baccata is a widely distributed yew often associated with cases of fatal intoxication, which is related to the high amounts of cardiotoxic alkaloids, taxine A and taxine B, contained in its leaves. In this paper, a case of Taxus fatal poisoning, hypothesized by the forensic autopsy, has been confirmed by the application of both gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) and liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS–MS) techniques. A GC–MS method was used for the determination of the derivatized 3,5-dimethoxyphenol, a cyanogenic aglylactone considered as a marker of Taxus poisoning, being present in all species of Taxus. The detection by LC–MS–MS of taxine B and isotaxine B in the biological specimens confirmed the absorption of cardiotoxic alkaloids and allowed to established the cause of death as the ingestion of Taxus baccata leaves.

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