Rapid screening of illicit additives in weight loss dietary supplements with desorption corona beam ionisation (DCBI) mass spectrometry.

H Wang, Y Wu, Y Zhao, W Sun, L Ding, B Guo, B Chen

Index: Food Addit. Contam. Part A. Chem. Anal. Control. Expo. Risk Assess. 29(8) , 1194-201, (2012)

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Abstract

Desorption corona beam ionisation (DCBI), the relatively novel ambient mass spectrometry (MS) technique, was utilised to screen for illicit additives in weight-loss food. The five usually abused chemicals - fenfluramine, N-di-desmethyl sibutramine, N-mono-desmethyl sibutramine, sibutramine and phenolphthalein - were detected with the proposed DCBI-MS method. Fast single-sample and high-throughput analysis was demonstrated. Semi-quantification was accomplished based on peak areas in the ion chromatograms. Four illicit additives were identified and semi-quantified in commercial samples. As there was no tedious sample pre-treatment compared with conventional HPLC methods, high-throughput analysis was achieved with DCBI. The results proved that DCBI-MS is a powerful tool for the rapid screening of illicit additives in weight-loss dietary supplements.