Abstract:

A high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analytical method for illicit drugs, apomorphine, sildenafil and alprostadil, in medicines for erectile dysfunction has been developed. The samples were extracted with methanol using ultrasound-assisted extraction. The chromatographic separation was performed on a Zorbax Eclipse XDB-C18 column using acetonitrile-0.5% formic acid aqueous solution as mobile phase. The three compounds were identified by retention time and m/z and quantified by peak area. The results demonstrated that the linear ranges were 50.0-5000.0 μg/L, 10.0-1000.0 μg/L, 40.0-4000.0 μg/L, with detection limits of 20.0, 4.0, 10.0 μg/L for apomorphine, sildenafil and alprostadil, respectively. The average recoveries and the relative standard deviations were 89%-95% and 9.5%-11%. The method is simple, rapid, accurate and suitable for the simultaneous determination of these drugs in medicines for erectile dysfunction.

Key words: alprostadil, apomorphine, medicines for erectile dysfunction , sildenafil, high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry