Identification of steroids in pharmaceuticals and food supplements with LCMS-8045
Authors: Dr. Gerasimos Liapatas & Dr. Manos Barbounis (Applications Department of N. Asteriadis S.A.)
Anabolic steroids are often encountered in samples of nutritional supplements and pharmaceutical preparations, either due to doping-related activities [1] or cross-contamination issues during production [2].
Developing methods to identify steroids in such samples can be challenging, since the method should be able to monitor numerous steroids with large differences in terms of polarity.
Compounds to be monitored comprise relatively polar steroids such as anastrozole as well as low polarity steroid esters which have been occurring with increasing frequency in food supplement samples.
The method developed includes testing for testosterone caproate and testosterone isocaproate, a challenging set of isomers which were partially separated (Resolution 0.6 as per Eur.Ph.) enabling the analytical method to identify which of the two isomers is contained in the sample. With respect to tibolone, three MRM transitions are reported with no need to resort to derivatization, which is usually the case with tibolone and its metabolites. Finally, a comprehensive rationale is provided for choosing MRM transitions for steroid esters, based on fragments of the free steroid read the full article on Shimadzu’s News 02/2020 p.11-13 …
