What Hair Reveals - Processing Human Hair in a Retsch Mixer Mill

The detection of illegal drugs and pharmaceuticals plays a role in various fields, for example in forensic science, road traffic accidents, in competitive sports or at the workplace. Chemical substances can be detected in

blood, saliva, urine and in hair. Hair has the great advantage of storing the substances for a long period, which means that detection is still possible several months after consumption of the drug. In addition to the detection of drugs, hair samples are also used for DNA analysis as well as for the analysis of heavy metals and minerals.

LABORATORY PREPARATION

In addition to water, hair consists of 65-95% proteins,1-9% lipids and 0.1-5% of the colored pigment melanin. After drug consumption the substances reach the hair via the blood circulation system, where they ‘grow’ as the hair grows. Substance enrichment takes place primarily in the melanin. As hair growth amounts to approximately one centimeter per month, the distance of the measured sample from the hair root allows de¬termination of the period in which the detected substance entered the body.