Abstract: A method was developed for the screening, confirmation and quantification of 21 hormones including progesterones, etrogens, glucocorticoids and resorcylic acid lactones in health foods by high performance liquid chromatography-ion trap-time of flight tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-IT-TOF-MS). The analytes in the sample were extracted with acetonitrile containing 1.0%(v/v) acetic acid and the extract was purified with the mixed QuEChERS sorbents. In the chromatographic analysis, the 21 target compounds were separated on a C18 column with the gradient elution using the mobile phases of acetonitrile and water containing 0.1% acetic acid. The mass analyzer was performed in positive and negative full scan modes in one injection at the same time. The results showed that the linear ranges of the 21 hormones were 5.0~250 μg/L with the correlation coefficients above 0.993 and the limits of quantification (LOQ, S/N≥10) were 2.0~5.0 μg/kg and 1.0~2.5 μg/L for capsule and oral solution, respectively. The method validation was carried out at three spiked levels, and the recoveries were 60.2%~116.0% with the relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 7.0%~18.3%. The screening of analytes was performed by precision mass matching and library searching. The secondary fragment ion spectra were employed to the confirmation. This method is simple, fast, reliable, and can be applied to the simultaneous screening and determination of hormones in health foods.

Key words: health foods, hormones, screening, high performance liquid chromatography-ion trap-time of flight tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-IT-TOF-MS)