Assessment of plant food supplements adulteration with psychopharmaceutical drugs

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare three different extraction methods (two based on ethanol extraction and one on the Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged, and Safe (QuEChERs) method) to assess the possible addition of psychopharmaceutical drugs (fluoxetine, sertraline, citalopram, venlafaxine, paroxetine, trazodone, and diazepam) as adulterants in St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum) based plant food supplements (PFS). Methodology: Analysis was performed in a Nexera Ultra-High Performance Liquid Chromatograph (UHPLC) coupled to a triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer (LCMS-8030 Shimadzu) with an electrospray ionization source (ESI), operating in positive ion mode, using a Kinetex C18 fused core column (150 × 2.10 mm i.d.; 1.7 m) (Phenomenex). Multiple reaction monitoring mode (MRM) was selected and pharmaceuticals were quantified by internal standard calibration method. Calibration curves were constructed in the range 10 – 1000 g/L. The three different extraction methods were compared based on the analysis of spiked samples. ; This work received financial support from the European Union (FEDER funds through COMPETE) and National Funds (FCT, Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia) through project EXPL/DTP-SAP/1438/2013 and Pest- C/EQB/LA0006/2013. To all financing sources the authors are greatly indebted. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion