Determination of illegal adulteration of dietary supplements with synthetic hair-growth compounds by UPLC and LC-Q-TOF/MS

ABSTRACTIn this study, we developed a UPLC-PDA and LC-Q-TOF/MS method to identify and measure the following prohibited substances that may be found in dietary supplements:triaminodil, minoxidil, bimatoprost, alimemazine, diphenylcyclopropenone, α-tradiol, finasteride, methyltestosterone, spironolatone, flutamide, cyproterone, dutasteride, and testosterone 17-propionate.The method was validated according to International Conference on Harmonization guidelines in terms of specificity, linearity, accuracy, precision, LOD, LOQ, recovery, and stability. The method was completely validated showing satisfactory data for all method validation parameters. The linearity was good (R2 > 0.999) with intra- and inter-day precision values of 0.2–3.4% and 0.3–2.9%, respectively. Moreover, the intra- and inter-day accuracies were 87–102% and 86–103%, respectively, and the precision was better than 9.4% (relative standard deviation).Hence, the proposed method is precise and has high quality,and can be utilised to comprehen...