Abstract:

An ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) method was developed for the simultaneous determination
of 13 illegally added chemical drugs (metformin hydrochloride,buformin hydrochloride, phenformin hydrochloride,
tolbutamide, glipizide, gliclazide, glibornuride, rosiglitazone hydrochloride, glibenclamide, pioglitazone hydrochloride,
glimepiride, repaglinide and gliquidone) in hypoglycemic health foods. Samples were extracted by using methanol.
ZORBAX SB-C18 column was applied with a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and 0.02 mol/L ammonium acetate
by gradient elution at a flow rate of 0.2 mL/min. The illegally added chemical drugs were detected by a photodiode array
detector and a chromatogram with detection wavelength of 235 nm was used for screening and quantification. The results
were then confirmed by comparison with the spectra of 13 reference substances. It was shown that the 13 anti-diabetic
agents could be effectively separated within 30 min. The correlation coefficients were all above 0.999 over the concentration
range of 0.3–90 μg/mL. The average recoveries ranged from 83.2% to 108.9% with relative stand deviations (RSDs) all
below 5.5%. The limits of detection (LODs) were all in the range of 0.2 to 0.6 ng. This method has the advantages of simple
pre-treatment, fast detection, satisfactory recovery rate and good reproducibility, and it is suitable for the simultaneous
determination of the 13 anti-diabetic agents and can be used as a reference in the detection of the illegally added chemical
drugs in hypoglycemic health foods.

Key words: health foods, anti-diabetic drugs, illegally added, ultra performance liquid chromatography