Sample Preparation Techniques for Growth-Promoting Agents in Various Mammalian Specimen Preceding MS-Analytics

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Forensic Science
• Veterinary Medicine

Background:

• Misuse of growth-promoting drugs (beta-2 agonists, steroids) is prevalent in agriculture and sports.
• Accurate detection of drug residues in animal samples requires robust sample preparation prior to LC-MS or GC-MS analysis.
• Broad screening methods are often employed for efficiency in analyzing multiple compounds.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review and analyze sample preparation techniques for animal specimens used in farming and sports.
• Focus on methods applied before liquid chromatography (LC) or gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis.
• Literature search covered publications from 2018 to October 2023.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of sample preparation procedures.
• Analysis of techniques for beta-2 agonists and steroids in animal samples.
• Identification of dominant extraction and clean-up methods.

Main Results:

• Solid phase extraction (SPE) is the predominant sample clean-up technique for beta-2 agonists and steroids.
• Protein precipitation is a commonly used secondary method.
• Mixed-mode cation exchanger SPE phases are preferred for beta-2 agonists, while diverse SPE materials are used for steroids.
• Dispersive SPE-based QuEChERs and combined SPE-LLE methods were also utilized for broader screening.

Conclusions:

• SPE is a highly effective technique for preparing animal samples for the analysis of beta-2 agonists and steroids.
• Variations in SPE materials and combined approaches enhance the scope of broad screening methods.
• Optimized sample preparation is crucial for reliable drug residue determination in regulatory and anti-doping contexts.