Simultaneously Detecting of 13 Illegally Added Drugs in Health Foods for Improving Sexual and Prostate Function by High Performance Liquid Chromatography

To simultaneously detect 13 illegally added chemical drugs, a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analytical method applicable to health food products for improving sexual function and prostate function was established. The samples were processed by vortex shaking for 1 min, followed by methanol extraction for 10 min under the ultrasonic condition. Then, the sample was separated on an Agilent 5 HC-C₁₈ (2) column (250 mm×4.6 mm, 5 µm) with a gradient separation using methanol-phosphate-triethylamine buffer as the mobile phase. The detection wavelengths were of 218 nm and 245 nm, the column temperature was 30 ℃, and the sample size was 10 µL. Results showed that the correlation coefficients (r) in the linear range were all greater than 0.999, the detection limits were 0.76～4.61 mg/kg, the average recoveries were 92.4%~100.7%, and the relative standard deviations were 0.44%~1.06%. The method was applied to the rapid screening of 65 batches of health foods for improving sexual and prostate function, and results indicated that paroxetine hydrochloride was detected in 2 batches of samples (15.26 mg/tablet, 6.34 mg/pellet, respectively) and yohimbine hydrochloride was detected in 1 batch of samples (10.12 mg/pellet). In summary, the method is easy to conduct and characterized with high sensitivity and reliability, which is suitable for daily supervision and inspection of illegal added drugs in health foods for improving sexual and prostate function.