ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To establish a method for determination of 30 antihypertensive medicines adulterated in traditional Chinese patent medicines and health foods by UPLC triple-quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer. METHODS: Multi-reactions monitoring (MRM) technology was used. The separation was performed on a Waters ACQUTTY UPLC™ BEHC18 column with a gradient mobile phase of methanol - 0.1% formic acid at flow rate of 0.2 mL · min-1. The ionization mode was ESI+. RESULTS: The standard curves of the 30 chemical medicines showed good linearity over the concentration ranges of 10 - 1000.0, 0 - 400.0 and 2.0 - 400.0 μg · L-1 (r = 0.9903-0.9998). The detection limits of the 30 chemical medicines were between 0.01 - 0.83 μg · L-1 and the average recoveries were 72.2% - 123.4% at 3 levels. CONCLUSION: The method is rapid and sensitive, and suitable for the determination of 30 chemical medicines in traditional Chinese patent medicines and health foods. Copyright 2012 by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.