Simultaneous Determination of 30 Hormones Illegally Added to Anti-Aging Functional Foods Using UPLC-MS/MS Coupled with SPE Clean-Up

The document detailed the creation of a new method for detecting 30 different hormones in anti-aging functional foods, using a combination of solid-phase extraction (SPE) and ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). This method demonstrated high sensitivity and reliability, with good linear correlations for hormone concentrations ranging from 1-1000 µg/kg and correlation coefficients over 0.99. The limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) were between 0.03 to 2 µg/kg and 0.1 to 5 µg/kg, respectively. Recovery rates for the hormones at three different concentration levels were between 74.7% and 124.1%, with relative standard deviations (RSD) from 2.4% to 15.0%. When applied to 14 real samples, the method detected hormones in four samples, indicating the presence of illegal hormone additives in some anti-aging products. The study emphasized the method's effectiveness for large-scale analysis of such products.