Simultaneous determination of eight alkaloids and oleandrin in herbal cosmetics by dispersive solid-phase extraction coupled with ultra high performance liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry.

We utilized ultra-high performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry and dispersive solid-phase extraction to develop a new method for the detection of nine analytes (scopolamine, cephaeline, strychnine, hyoscyamine, brucine, hydrastine, ajmalicine, colchicine, and oleandrin) in herbal cosmetics. Acetonitrile/water and 2-propylaminoethylamine were used to disperse and purify during the dispersive solid-phase extraction step. The analytes were separated by a Waters UPLC HSS T3 column and detected through electrospray ionization source in the positive mode with multi-reaction monitoring conditions. Under the optimal conditions, the calibration curves were linear in the range of 0.2-100.0 μg/L with the correlation coefficients higher than 0.995. The method limit of quantitation (S/N = 10) were 5.0 μg/kg for oleandrin and 1.0 μg/kg for the other eight alkaloids. The mean recoveries at three spiked concentration levels of 1.0-10.0 μg/kg were in the range of 86.9-116.5% with the intra-day relative standard deviations (n = 6) ranging from 2.4 to 8.8%, and inter-day relative standard deviations ranging from 2.7 to 5.7%. This method is accurate, simple and rapid, and has been applied to the quality supervision of herbal cosmetics in Guangzhou.