Development of a LC-MS/MS method for simultaneous analysis of 20 antihistamines in dietary supplements

Recently, the consumption of dietary supplements has increased because of people’s greater interest in health. Unfortunately, the sales of dietary supplements containing unauthorized substances such as drugs have also increased. We developed a rapid, accurate method for the simultaneous determination of antihistamines using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry with a multiple reaction monitoring mode. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) of the instrument used in this method were in the ranges 0.0003-0.3 and 0.0009-0.6 μg mL?1, respectively. The linearity of the method was > 0.99. The precision levels of the method were 0.1-9.8% (intra-day) and 0.3-9.6% (inter-day), and the levels of accuracy of the method were 82.7-115.0% (intra-day) and 84.3-113.0% (inter-day). The mean of recovery of the method was in the range of 83.9-117.9% and the RSD of the stability was less than 5.9%.