Simultaneous Analysis of 12 Aphrodisiacs in Traditional Medicine using Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry

People tend to consume traditional medicines compared to synthetic drugs due to their safety and low side effects. The high demand of traditional medicine consumption in public stimulates some traditional medicine industries illegally add medicinal chemicals into their products to elevate the therapeutic effect. In order to accelerate the monitoring program of product quality and safety, the availability of a rapid and reliable analytical method becomes a necessity. The research aims to determine the validity of the liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and its application to simultaneously identify 12 aphrodisiac compounds in male sexual enhancer traditional medicine. The chromatography system used an ion modifier of 0.1% formic acid. The mass spectrometer was equipped with a triple quadrupole (TQD) as a mass analyzer in a positive mode of ESI. The analysis was conducted in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) transition. Qualitative analysis was performed using retention time (Rt) of peaks in each compound, within their value of m/z quantifier and qualifier ions. Method validation was performed by evaluating the profile of selectivity, precision, matrix effect, and limit of detection (LOD). A qualitative analysis of the selectivity test was carried out by comparing the retention times between the blank sample added with the reference standards (spiked sample) and those in reference standards, with a difference of ±1minute shifts. Precision analysis on intra-day precision gives results in the range of 2.0–8.6%. The method showed that there was no matrix effect with the extraction efficiency values ranging from 86.2 to 110.9%. The LOD values for the 12 compounds were in the range of 1.6 ± 0.58 to 18.2 ± 6.14 µg/g. The method can be applied to test 49 samples of male sexual enhancer traditional medicines consisting of powder, capsules, solutions, soft capsules, and caplets dosage forms. The tested samples contained 8 (eight) types of aphrodisiac compounds. This study shows that LC-MS can be used to confirm the content of aphrodisiac compounds in traditional medicinal samples.