A rapid and reliable UPLC-MS/MS method for the identification and quantification of fourteen synthetic anti-diabetic drugs in adulterated Chinese proprietary medicines and dietary supplements

An ultraperformance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method was developed for simultaneous qualitative and quantitative analysis of 14 synthetic anti-diabetic drugs in adulterated Chinese proprietary medicines (CPMs) and dietary supplements The samples were prepared by ultrasonic extraction with methanol and separated on a C-18 column with mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and water (both containing 0 10% formic acid) Gradient elution was applied with a flow rate of 0 20 mL/min Two transitions from protonated molecules were monitored for each synthetic anti-diabetic drug in positive mode of electrospray ionization (ESI) The two transitions, the peak area ratio of the two transitions and the retention time were used for identification The more intensive transition was used for quantification The analysis time was 6 min per sample Satisfactory linear relationships were estimated between the peak area and the concentration with correlation coefficients higher than 0 995 The limit of detection ranged from 0 03 to 5 45 ng/mL The relative standard deviation of ultra-day precision was below 7 6%, the RSD of inter-day precision was below 15% and the relative error of accuracy was between -10 and 7 8% The proposed method is rapid, selective, reliable and was successfully applied to the analysis of 30 real samples of 22 CPMs and eight dietary supplements from the local market in China Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd