Rapid screening of 16 illicit additives in herbal pharmaceuticals and health foods based on ion mobility spectrometry

Abstract

A qualitative screening method using ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) was developed for the detection of 16 commonly found illicit additives in herbal pharmaceuticals and health foods, including ibuprofen, nitrazepam, nitrendipine, indomethacin, phenobarbital, sibutramine, diclofenac sodium, diazepam, estazolam, melatonin, phenolphthalein, prednisone acetate, betamethasone, metformin HCl, glibenclamide, and tadalafil. A substance database suitable for the rapid on-site analysis of these compounds was then established based on the matching algorithm of some key parameters, such as reduced mobility calculated and tolerance estimated, etc. The developed measurement was successfully applied to assess 15 real samples after full validation in respect of sensitivity, matrix effect, recovery, precision, and stability. The suspected illicit additives were all consistently confirmed and further quantified with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Two sampling introduction methods of direct swabbing with swab paper and a simple extraction procedure with methanol were also compared, and no significant difference was found.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Detection
• health food
• herbal pharmaceutical
• illicit additive
• ion mobility spectrometry
• substance database

Disclosure statement

All the authors in this paper declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Chinese Pharmacopeia Commission Drug Specifications Research Project under Grant CHP-LC-2019001; Medical science and Technology Development Project of Beijing Health Alliance Charitable Foundation under Grant HS202011; and National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 21904091.