HERBAL MIXTURES WITH CLAIMED SLIMMING ACTIVITY - DETERMINATION BY TLCAND HPLC OF ILLEGALLY ADDED DRUGS

A method for the detection and quantitation of several undeclared drug s in herbal preparations with slimming activity is proposed. Samples c ontaining various anorexics, hypoglycemics and antidepressants were pr epared by addition of the drugs to a synthetic mixture containing the most commonly used plant powders for those preparations. Each sample w as subjected to a treatment that permitted, after a simple ethanolic e xtraction, the identification of the drugs by TLC using three differen t solvent systems. A further purification of the ethanolic solution th rough a polyamide column allowed for quantitative analysis of the drug s by a RP-HPLC method. The analytical recovery was good (88-97%); the calibration curves were linear over a wide range of drug concentration s (30-500 mug/ml) (r > 0.9995); the precision was high (CV% = 0.4-2.8) as well as the accuracy (96-102%).