Determination of Corticosteroids and Anabolic Agents in Health Food by High Performance Liquid Chromatography

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the analyses of 10 kinds of corticosteroids, i.e., prednisolone, cortisone, 6α-methylprednisolone, betamethasone, dexamethasone, triamcinolone acetonide, fluorometholone, hydrocortisone acetate, cortisone acetate and dexamethazone acetate and 3 kinds of anabolic agents, i.e., β-estradiol, testosterone and progesterone in health food was developed. These hormones were extracted with acetonitrile in an ultrasonic bath. The crude extract was purified and fractionated into two parts, i.e., corticosteroids and β-estradiol fraction and testosterone and progesterone fraction, by solid phase extraction using a Sep Pak C18 and a BAKERBOND spe NH2. Each fraction was chromatographed on a Nucleosil 100-5C18 column with acetonitrile-water-0.2M phosphate buffer pH 3.0 (38 : 57 : 5) for corticosteroids and β-estradiol fraction and (50 : 47 : 3) for testosterone and progesterone fraction. Detection was achieved with a UV monitor set at 230 nm and 250 nm for corticosteroids and β-estradiol fraction and at 245 nm for testosterone and progesterone fraction. The recoveries from powdered terrapin, powdered viper, powdered royal jelly and shark extract fortified with the standard mixture at level of 0.2 μg/g each were 39.4-105.6% for corticosteroids and 67.2-95.4% for anabolic agents. Each hormone in health food at level as low as 0.02 μg/g was determined by the proposed method.