Determination of synthetic pharmaceuticals in phytotherapeutics by capillary zone electrophoresis with contactless conductivity detection (CZE-C4D)

Presence of synthetic pharmaceuticals as adulterants in slimming phytotherapeutic formulations and their analytical determination

“…Some advantages of CE, such as high-resolution power, short analysis time, and low consumption of chemicals and samples, make it an attractive method for this kind of investigation [36,38,39]. The most frequently used CE methods for the determination of adulterants are capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) and micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) [19,[40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47]49]. A recent work published by de Carvalho et al [47] showed the possibility of using the CE with contactless conductivity detection (CE-C 4 D) as a screening method for eight adulterants (amfepramone, fenproporex, sibutramine, fluoxetine, bupropion, sertaline, paroxetine and flurazepam) in different phytotherapeutic formulations.…”

“…The most frequently used CE methods for the determination of adulterants are capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) and micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) [19,[40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47]49]. A recent work published by de Carvalho et al [47] showed the possibility of using the CE with contactless conductivity detection (CE-C 4 D) as a screening method for eight adulterants (amfepramone, fenproporex, sibutramine, fluoxetine, bupropion, sertaline, paroxetine and flurazepam) in different phytotherapeutic formulations. However, CE with conductivity, UV or MS detectors has not yet been applied for the routine analysis of adulterants in these formulations.…”

“…Table 2 summarizes the CE methods described in the literature for the determination of adulterants and includes their main analytical features. The summarized CE methods were developed for the screening and confirmation of the adulterants based on their migration times after the selective electrophoretic separation, followed by the quantification of the pharmaceuticals by using the addition of high purity reference standards [16,32,[44][45][46][47]49]. The use of CE-MS as a confirmation method for adulterants has not yet been described in the literature.…”

“…The analysis of phytotherapeutic samples by CE methods involves also the extraction of the adulterants from the solid samples using normally water [32,44], and methanol [19,[45][46][47]. Solvent mixtures like water/methanol [3,41], water/ethanol [16,49], and methanol/THF [45] were also described in the literature for the adulterant analysis by CE methods.…”

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“…Contactless conductivity (C 4 D) is capable of selectively screening amfepramone, fenproporex, sibutramine, fluoxetine, bupropion, sertraline, paroxetine, and flurazepam in HMPs; it can also separate cationic species. This hypothesis was tested in 106 samples in approximately half of Brazilʼs pharmacies [75]. CE is a beneficial and simple method because it is rapid, inexpensive, and requires fewer quantities of the samples.…”