Simultaneous determination of 20 illegally added anti-diabetic chemical components in hypoglycemic and weight-reducing health foods by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

A rapid method for the simultaneous screening and detection of 20 illegally added anti-diabetic chemical components in hypoglycemic and weight-reducing health foods was developed by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). After extracted by methanol, the sample was separated on a Poroshell 120 EC C18 column (100 mm x 2.1 mm, 2.7 microm) with the gradient elution of 5 mmol/L ammonium acetate and acetonitrile as mobile phases. The electrospray ionization (ESI) source in positive or negative ion mode was used for multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. The 20 illegally added chemical components showed good linear relationships with the correlation coefficients more than 0.99. The recoveries were in the range of 75.9% - 114.0%, and the relative standard deviations (RSDs) were all not more than 11.3%. The limits of detection (LODs) were all in the range of 0.3 - 1.5 microg/L. This method is rapid, simple, sensitive, accurate and of good specificity for cracking down illegally added anti-diabetic chemical components.