Preprint / Version 1

Simultaneous analysis of 23 illegal adulterated aphrodisiac chemical ingredients in health foods and Chinese traditional patent medicines by ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry

Authors

  • Xiao-Bing Wang aShandong Institute for Food and Drug Control, Jinan, China
  • Yang-En Sun bDong-E E-jiao Co., Ltd, National Engineering Technology Research Center of Gelatin Medicine, Shandong Province Key Laboratory of R&D of the Gelatin Medicine, Liaocheng, China
  • Rui-Qing Xian aShandong Institute for Food and Drug Control, Jinan, China
  • Ming-Jie Liu aShandong Institute for Food and Drug Control, Jinan, China
  • Li-Hua Xu aShandong Institute for Food and Drug Control, Jinan, China
  • Qi-Yan Li aShandong Institute for Food and Drug Control, Jinan, China
  • Hai-Ying Yu aShandong Institute for Food and Drug Control, Jinan, China
  • Jun-Jie Li aShandong Institute for Food and Drug Control, Jinan, China
  • Jing Zheng aShandong Institute for Food and Drug Control, Jinan, China
  • Bing-Jie Liu cShanghai AB Sciex Analytical Instrument Trading Co., Ltd, Shanghai, China

Keywords:

Q-TOF MS, Illegal adulteration, Aphrodisiac chemical ingredients, Qualitation, Quantitation

Abstract

This paper presents an application of ultra high-performance liquid-chromatography-quadrupole-TOF high resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q-TOF HRMS) for simultaneous analysis of 23 illegal adulterated aphrodisiac type chemical ingredients in health foods and Chinese Traditional Patent Medicines (CTPMs). The mass spectrometer was operated in Information Dependent Acquisition (IDA) mode, which provides crucial information for the elemental composition analysis, structure elucidation and quantitative analysis simultaneously. Quantitative analysis was performed using the peak areas of the precursor ions in the XICs. The method validation included assessment of selectivity, sensitivity, calibration curve, accuracy, precision, recovery, matrix effect and stability. The results show good linear relationship with the concentrations of the analytes over wide concentration ranges (e.g., 0.05–10 μg/g for sildenafil) as all the fitting coefficients of determination r2 are >0.9984. The detection limits (LODs) were in the range of 0.002–0.1 μg/g. The recoveries were able to reach 82.5–103.6%, while the matrix effects ranged from 87.7 to 109.3%. The intra- and inter-day accuracies were in the range of 82.3–113.8%, while the intra- and inter-day precision ranged from 0.4 to 13.6%. Among 40 batches of health foods and 32 batches of CTPMs (including 28 capsules, 32 tablets, 10 liquid and 2 pills) samples, 28 batches of heath foods were positive. The detected chemical ingredients involved sildenafil, tadalafil, aildenafil and sulfoaildenafil. This method can be used for the screening, identification and quantification of illegal adulterated aphrodisiac chemical ingredients in health foods and CTPMs. Moreover, the LC-Q-TOF MS is very useful to structural elucidation of unknown compound. Keywords: Q-TOF MS, Illegal adulteration, Aphrodisiac chemical ingredients, Qualitation, Quantitation

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