Skip to content

Extraction

Definition

The first step in sample preparation. The analyte is pulled out of its original matrix (blood, urine, viscera, soil, paint chip) into a solvent or sorbent that the instrument can handle. Choices range from classical liquid-liquid extraction to solid-phase extraction (SPE), solid-phase microextraction (SPME), accelerated solvent extraction (ASE), Soxhlet for fats and lipids, and dilute-and-shoot for high-concentration urine work.

Related terms

Bracketing Standards
Calibration standards or quality control samples injected before, during and after a batch of case samples. They track instrument drift through the...
Calibration Curve
In RIA, a set of standards containing known concentrations of unlabelled analyte that are run alongside test samples. Bound radioactivity is measured...
Certified Reference Material (CRM)
A sample with one or more analyte concentrations established by an accredited body and traceable to a national metrology institute. NIST SRM...
Internal Standard (IS)
A compound chemically near-identical to the analyte, often a deuterated isotopologue (d3-morphine, d5-EDDP, d5-alprazolam, pyrene-d10), spiked into every sample at a known...
Limit of Detection (LOD) and Limit of Quantitation (LOQ)
LOD is the lowest concentration the instrument can reliably distinguish from blank, defined as three times the standard deviation of the blank...
Recovery
The fraction of analyte that survives the extraction and clean-up workflow, measured by spiking a known amount of analyte into a blank...

Explained in

Your journey to becoming a forensic professional starts here.

Practice with mock tests, learn from structured notes, and get your questions answered by a global forensic community, all in one place.