Abstract: A method for the simultaneous determination of six blood lipid regulating drugs (nicotinicacid, pravastatin sodium, fluvastatin sodium, mevastatin, lovastatin and simvastatin) illegally added to antilipemic functional foods by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) was established. The samples were extracted with methanol. The analytes were separated on a Waters Acquity BEH-C18 column with a mobile phase consisting of 0.1% aqueous formic acid solution and acetonitrile using gradient elution at a flow rate of 0.2 mL/min, detected by multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) with an electrospray ionization source in the positive ion mode, and quantified by the external standard method. Under the experimental conditions in this study, all analytes were separated well, and they were quantified accurately and rapidly within 4 min. The limits of detection of the method ranged from 4 and 39 μg/kg, and the recoveries for spiked samples were 80.2%–106.1%. Twenty batches of antilipemic functional foods were tested by the method and out of these, 3 were found to contain nicotinic acid and lovastatin. This method exhibited good linear relationships and it was fast, simple and highly accurate, and thus could be used for the simultaneous determination of the six drugs illegally added in antilipemic functional foods.

Key words: ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS), antilipemic, chemicals, healthy foods, illegal additives