Simultaneous determination of pharmaceutical components in dietary supplements for weight loss by capillary electrophoresis tandem mass spectrometry

A simple capillary electrophoresis tandem mass spectrometry method was developed for the simultaneous determination of 20 pharmaceutical components such as cathartics and appetite suppressants in dietary supplements for weight loss. This method allowed multidrug target screening and confirmation in differing radically in chemical structure. The separation was achieved on an uncoated fused‐silica capillary using 20 mM ammonium formate in 20 % v/v acetonitrile‐water (pH 8.0) as the electrolyte, followed by detection mixed with a sheath liquid that consisted of a mixture of 5 mM ammonium formate and 0.1 % v/v formic acid in 50 % v/v methanol‐water. Samples were hydrodynamically injected and separated at 30 kV within 25 min. The limits of detection were 1.0–750 µg/g for the target analytes. The method was successfully applied to 12 dietary supplements for weight loss and 3 non‐prescription drugs. The proposed method was suitable as the determination and identification of pharmaceutical components in dietary supplements for weight loss. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.