Simultaneous determination of 23 sedative drugs in health foods by high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

An analytical method using HPLC-MS/MS was developed for qualitative and quantitative analysis of 23 sedative drugs in health foods. The method was based on the sonication-assisted extraction of the health food samples using 10 mL methanol. The extract was then isolated by centrifugation and the supernatant was separated on an Agilent Eclipse Plus C, column with gradient elution at a flow rate of 300 microL/min. A binary mobile phase was 10 mmol/L ammonium formate (solvent A) and acetonitrile/methanol (1:1, v/v; solvent B). The electrospray ionization (ESI) source in positive ion mode or negative ion mode was used for multiple reaction monitoring (MRM). The external standard method was used for the quantification. The calibration graphs were linear in their concentration ranges with the correlation coefficients more than 0. 990. The limits of detection (LOD, S/N= 3) were between 0. 02 - 1.0 microg/L. The recoveries for all the drugs in health foods were 82. 3% - 114. 8% with the relative standard deviations less than 14. 1% at three spiked levels. Thirteen kinds of health foods were tested, in which meprobamate and oxazepan were found in one sample separately, and zaleplon was found in two samples. The method is specific, sensitive, easy and quick and suitable for the confirmation and quantification of the 23 sedative drugs in health foods.