Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry applied to the analysis of natural and synthetic steroids in environmental waters

A multiresidue analytical method for the determination of the most common a nd biologically active natural and synthetic steroids (four estrogens: estr iol, 17 beta -estradiol, 17 alpha -ethynylestradiol, estrone; one progestag en: progesterone and six androgens: trenbolone, boldenone, nandrolone, test osterone, 17 alpha -methyltestosterone, stanozolol) in environmental waters was developed. The analytes were isolated from water samples by solid phas e extraction (SPE) utilizing a graphitized carbon black adsorbent (Carbogra ph-1). The final samples were analyzed by reversed-phase high performance l iquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry using atmospheric pressu re chemical ionization (LC-APCI-MS-MS). Ionization was performed in a heate d nebulizer (HN) interface operating in the positive ion mode. The protonat ed ions [M+H](+) and the dehydrated ions [M+H-H2O](+) (for estriol, 17 alph a -estradiol, 17 beta -estradiol, and 17 alpha -ethynylestradiol) were used as precursor ion for collision-induced dissociation (CID), and two diagnos tic product ions for each analyte were identified for the unambiguous stero id confirmation by multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. Method performa nce, for this analytical procedure, was validated by analyzing groundwater and river water samples fortified at level of 20 ng/L. The average recovery for each analyte exceeded 82%. Good method precision was demonstrated with percent relative standard deviation of less than 7.2% for all analytes.