Abstract
A rapid and economical method was developed for the simultaneous determination of androgens, progestogens, and glucocorticoids and their precursors and metabolites in meat. Steroids were isolated with liquid extraction followed by C18-solid-phase extraction (C18-SPE). Corticoids were separated from the less polar steroids by Si-SPE. The non-polar steroids required additional purification by filtration through an NH2 cartridge. The fractions were combined and derivatized with a universally applicable trimethylsilylation of both hydroxyl and keto groups. Determination was performed with gas chromatography-mass selective detection (determination limits: 0.02–0.1 μg/kg). Hormone profiles of 15 muscle tissue samples of both bulls and steers were analysed. Beef from bulls contained higher concentrations of testosterone and epitestosterone (P<0.001), 11-deoxycorticosterone (P<0.01), androstenedione (P<0.05) and cortisone (P<0.05), and significantly lower proportions of cortisol (P<0.001) than beef from steers.
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