Discovery of Natural Veterinary Herbal Medicine Products in Commercial Cow Milk by Using Nontargeted Profiling on LC–ESI–TOF Platform

For centuries, herbal medicines have been used to treat humans and animals. Veterinary medicines are well-regulated; inspectors monitor milk and associated dairy products to screen for unacceptable contaminants. However, few scholars have discussed how the by-products of veterinary herbal medicine can be found in food products. In this paper, we applied nontargeted profiling of the UHPLC–ESI–TOF platform to screen possible by-products originating from veterinary herbal medicine in commercial milk samples. These tentatively identified alkaloids showed high consistency with the plant extract of Holarrhena antidysenterica (L.) Wall. ex A. DC., which indicated the possibility that dairy farmers had used plants from genus Holarrhena as veterinary herbal medicine. This is the first report showing the presence of by-products originating from veterinary herbal medicine in commercial milk. This finding could help authorities to evaluate the use of veterinary herbal medicine in farm animals.