title: Determination of steroids adulterated in liquid herbal medicines using QuEChERS sample preparation and high-performance liquid chromatography.
abstract: QuEChERS sample preparation was optimized using solvent extraction with acetonitrile and dispersive-solid phase extraction with primary and secondary amine sorbents, and validated for high-performance liquid chromatographic determination of nine steroids commonly used to adulterate herbal medicines: such as triamcinolone, prednisolone, hydrocortisone, methylprednisolone, betamethasone, dexamethasone, beclomethasone, fludrocortsone acetate and cortisone acetate. Satisfactory extraction recoveries of 91-113% for all nine steroids were obtained, along with an acceptable precision in extraction recoveries shown by R.S.D. of ≤4.6 and 3.2% for intraday and interday, respectively. The QuEChERS sample preparation developed here allows the reliable detection of adulterated steroids with the limits of detection in the range of 0.06-0.17ppm. Adulterated steroids in three out of six real commercial liquid herbal medicines were found, such as 1.6 and 8.8ppm dexamethasone and 0.43ppm prednisolone.
authors.affiliation: Chromatography and Separation Research Unit, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand.
authors.forename: Nantana
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Klinsunthorn
authors.forename: Amorn
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Petsom
authors.forename: Thumnoon
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nhujak
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D002138:Calibration; D002623:Chemistry Techniques, Analytical / Q000379:methods; D002626:Chemistry, Pharmaceutical / Q000379:methods; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D004340:Drug Contamination; D028321:Plant Preparations / Q000032:analysis*; D011208:Powders / Q000737:chemistry; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D052616:Solid Phase Extraction / Q000379:methods; D012997:Solvents / Q000737:chemistry; D013256:Steroids / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D028321:Plant Preparations; D011208:Powders; D012997:Solvents; D013256:Steroids