Simultaneous determination of some steroid hormones in milk and dairy products by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)

Abstract

A sensitive method has been developed and validated for simultaneous determination of some steroid hormones (trenbolone, 17β-estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, estrone, melengestrol acetate and zeranol). Samples were hydrolyzed to release analytes, and analytes were then extracted from sample matrix using QuEChERS technique, detected and quantified by using reversed phase liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. The tandem mass spectrometric detection was done by using ESI ion source working in positive mode and multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) quantitation. Validation results show that the method is sensitive and selective for analyzing seven steroid hormones on milk and dairy products. The quantitation limit of the method for these analytes ranged from 0.1 to 2.0 µg/kg. Method recovery was from 70.4 to 110.0 %. Relative coefficient of variation varied from 2.7 to 12%. The method was applied to determine steroid hormones in 40 milk and dairy product samples collected from different markets and commercial centers in Hanoi.