Fast Screening and Identification of Illegal Adulterated Glucocorticoids in Dietary Supplements and Herbal Products Using UHPLC-QTOF-MS With All-Ion Fragmentation Acquisition Combined With Characteristic Fragment Ion List Classification

Abstract

Ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOF-MS) with all-ion fragmentation (AIF) acquisition was established for an identification and quantification of illegal adulterated glucocorticoids in dietary supplements and herbal products. Next, a novel method called characteristic fragment ion list classification (CFILC) was developed for a fast screening of adulterated compounds. CFILC could provide the characteristic ions comprehensively and completely through direct extract from the MS2 library instead of finding them manually. This is time-saving and provides fast screening results with a high confidence level by filtering of a pre-calculated threshold of similarity scores for illegal adulterants that are not included in the library as well as for new emerging structural analogs. The obtained results demonstrated the great qualitative and quantitative strength of this approach, providing a promising and powerful method for a routine fast screening of illegal adulterated glucocorticoids.

Rapid Detection of Five Estrogens Added Illegally to Dietary Supplements by Combining TLC with Raman Imaging Microscope

“…The demand for botanical dietary supplements (BDS) originating from purely natural substances is prominently increasing due to the belief that these "natural" herbal products are harmless and do not cause the detrimental side effects of chemical drugs or their analogues [1]. To improve the efficacy of BDS, some pharmaceutical drugs are intentionally and illegally added, including chemicals prohibited by the administrative authority of the government [2,3]. These illegal products are hazardous to human health and could even threaten consumers' lives.…”