engleski

Sibutramine in slimming dietary supplements

Introduction: Overweight and obesity might be classified as civilization diseases. Many people try to solve their problem with easy solutions like using herbal products. Sliming products are some of the most sold over the counter (OTC) and the food supplements products in EU. The most dangerous are the food supplements to which medicines, like sibutramine, are added as adulterants, since the patient believes he is taking a supplement, mostly herbal based and thus safe. In 2010, sibutra¬mine was removed from the European market because of the risk of non- fatal cardiovascular events (stroke, heart attack). Since the number of slimming products grows, it is important for the regulatory instances to check these products for their quality and composition in order to evaluate the health risk for population. Material and Methods: Our study included health quality control on sibutramine in slimming dietary supplements (tee, coffee, chocolate, capsules and all kind of syrups) purchased from Croatian market using high-pressure liquid chromatography- electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS-MS). Also, the method was developed and validated. Results: For sibutramine and N, N-didesmethylsibutramine MS detection was performed in negative mode using Multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM). The drugs were isolated from sample remedies using simple methanol extraction. The target drug was separated using reversed-phase liquid chromatography on chromatographic column Zorbax SB C18 (150 mm × 2.1 mm, 3.5 μm) with a gradient elution using acetonitrile – 0.1% formic acid mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.2 mL/min. Results showed that more than quarter of these „healthy and harmless“ products are contaminated or replaced with active substance sibutramine in five years period. Conclusions: Regular market control of slimming food supplements on sibutramine, by the method for identification and quantification described in our study, could prevent the health risk for population.

sibutramine; slimming dietary supplements; obesity

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