Abstract:

A high performance liquid chromatography-linear ion trap/orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometry
(Orbitrap MS) method was developed for rapid screening and detection of 23 illicit western medicine components with
antihypertensive efficacy in health foods. The samples were extracted with methanol, and the extracts were then separated
on an Acquity UPLC BEH C18 (50 mm×2.1 mm, 1.7 μm) using a binary solvent system composed of methanol and 0.1%
formic acid in water by gradient elution. Both positive ion scan mode and negative ion scan mode were used to detect 23
western medicine components within 9 minutes. The relative molecular masses of the target compounds were obtained in
full scan mode with a relative deviation in the range of 0.2×10-6 to 2.8×10-6 compared to the theoretical value, indicating
effective elimination of the matrix interference. Tandem mass spectrometric database based on characteristic fragment ions
for the 23 western medicines was built. This method allowed qualitative screening and quantitative analysis at the same time.
Recoveries of the proposed method were in range of 72.3%–118.2% at spike levels of 0.2, 0.5 and 5.0 μg/kg with relative standard
deviations (RSDs) between 0.5% and 8.4%, and the limits of detection were between 0.2 and 0.5 μg/kg. As a high-throughput and
confirmatory method, it is useful for the determination of illicit western medicines as antihypertensive agents in health foods.

Key words: ultra high performance liquid chromatography (UPLC), orbitrap high resolution mass spectrometry, antihypertensive medicines, health food products